Illinois
Illinois Pensions
The state of pensions in Illinois is Distressed
Equable Insights
Illinois at a Glance
Funded ratio (2025): 54%
Unfunded Liabilities (2025): $205.9 Billion
Want to know more about Illinois’ pension funding at the state, plan and system level? Explore the Financial Resilience Report to learn more.
Issue Brief
Pension Challenges Facing Illinois
We published two complementary briefs on two important pension issues facing the state of Illinois. The first brief assesses proposed improvements to Tier 2 pension benefits, revealing certain changes would provide more value to public servants than others while imposing vastly different costs on taxpayers. The second brief is a forensic review of the sources of Chicago’s $56 billion in pension debt that finds that interest accumulation is the primary challenge to healthy funding levels.
Signature Reports
Flagship research products, updated regularly to track public retirement systems and their impact on workers and communities.
State of Pensions
State of Pensions is Equable Institute’s annual report on the status of statewide public pension systems, put into a historic context.
Retirement Security Report
The Retirement Security Report (RSR) is a comprehensive, interactive assessment of the quality of benefits being offered to public sector workers nationwide.
Hidden Education Funding Cuts
Hidden Education Funding Cuts analyzes state and local K-12 education spending relative to growing teacher pension debt.
Info for
Public Workers
We can help you understand your retirement benefits, the policies that shape them, and the news that matters to you.
Journalists
Our data, research, and expert voices are here to support your reporting on public retirement systems and the people they serve.
Advocates
We provide research, data, and expert support to inform and strengthen your advocacy.
Policymakers
Rigorous, nonpartisan research and technical assistance to support informed decision-making on public retirement policy.
Explore by topic
Benefits
Explore research, data, news, and analysis on the retirement benefits that serve millions of public employees across the country.
Funding
Dive into research, data, news, and analysis on how public retirement systems are financed, managed, and sustained over the long term.
Investment Policy
Discover research, data, news, and analysis on the investment strategies and policies that shape public retirement system portfolios.
Governance
Access research, data, news, and analysis on efforts to improve public pension fund transparency, governance, and accountability
Stay Up to Date
Sign up for our newsletter to get the latest news in public retirement straight to your inbox.