Employer pension plans (trusteed pension funds), fourth quarter 2024
Released: 2025-06-11
2,469,125
Fourth quarter 2024
9.8% 
(year-over-year change)
The market value of assets held by Canadian trusteed pension funds reached nearly $2.5 trillion at the end of the fourth quarter, a year-over-year increase of $221.3 billion (+9.8%).
At the end of the fourth quarter, the five largest asset categories, which together accounted for 93.0% of the total market value of assets, all increased in value over the previous year. The category with the largest dollar increase was equities (+$137.3 billion; +16.4%), followed by bonds (+$36.1 billion; +6.1%), infrastructure (+$21.5 billion; +9.8%), other assets (+$20.5 billion; +11.7%) and real estate (+$4.3 billion; +1.6%).
Overall, domestic assets rose $37.7 billion (+4.2%) year over year, and foreign assets rose $159.4 billion (+14.8%).
Net income positive in 2024
Canadian trusteed pension funds posted a net income of $36.8 billion in 2024, up 37.1% from $26.8 billion one year earlier.
Total revenue increased 21.1% (+$11.6 billion) from the end of the fourth quarter of 2023 to $66.3 billion at the end of 2024.
Expenditures were up 5.8% (+$1.6 billion) year over year to $29.6 billion at the end of the fourth quarter.
Domestic and foreign assets increase
The total market value of domestic holdings totalled $943.4 billion at the end of the fourth quarter, an increase of 4.2% from the same quarter the previous year.
All but two domestic asset categories grew in 2024. Bonds (+$30.3 billion; +6.2%) led with the largest increase, followed by equities (+$9.5 billion; +5.4%) and infrastructure (+$2.7 billion; +5.5%). Real estate was down $4.5 billion (-3.8%), and short-term investments decreased by $287 million (-0.4%).
Similar to domestic assets, the value of most foreign asset categories rose over the course of 2024. Foreign equities (+$127.7 billion; +19.4%) was the foreign asset category with the largest increase, followed by infrastructure (+$18.8 billion; +11.0%), real estate (+$8.7 billion; +6.2%) and bonds (+$5.8 billion; +5.8%). Short-term investments fell by $1.8 billion (-23.6%).
The value of assets of unknown nationality ($289.5 billion) constituted 11.7% of the total value of assets at the end of 2024, a slight decrease from 11.8% one year earlier.
Public and private sector assets continue to grow
At the end of the fourth quarter, the value of assets held by public sector plans was up by $211.7 billion (+11.8%) from the previous year, surpassing $2.0 trillion. Private sector assets increased by $9.6 billion (+2.1%) to $463.6 billion.
The proportion of total assets of trusteed pension funds held by the public sector increased from 79.8% at the end of 2023 to 81.2% at the end of 2024.
Chart 1
Quarterly trusteed pension fund assets
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Note to readers
Starting in the first quarter of 2021, the survey was redesigned to collect additional variables and increase the number of pension funds covered quarterly.
Previously, the quarterly survey included approximately the 150 largest trusteed pension funds, and the remainder of the pension amounts were imputed based on the results of the biennial Census of Trusteed Pension Funds. The new design no longer uses the data from the biennial census, which was discontinued in 2016. Instead, the quarterly survey's sample has been augmented to include the top 250 trusteed pension plans, equating to approximately 90% of the total value of all trusteed pension assets, resulting in reduced respondent burden. Therefore, the values reported in this release refer to the 250 largest pension plans and no longer include imputation for the remainder of the trusteed pension plan universe.
The new design eases data collection for respondents and improves data interpretability for users by reflecting the format of financial statements more closely. It also allows for higher accuracy in certain variables, such as the share of assets invested abroad. Additional detail in the reporting categories also reduces the share of assets classified in the "other assets" category.
Tables 11-10-0084-01, 11-10-0085-01 and 11-10-0086-01 have replaced tables 11-10-0076-01, 11-10-0077-01 and 11-10-0079-01, which are now terminated and have been archived.
For the purposes of this survey, trusteed pension funds include the assets of one or more registered pension plans: those held under a trust agreement, those held by a pension corporation or pension fund society, those administered under legislation by the Government of Canada or the government of a province of Canada, and those held by an insurance company for investment management only.
Data on revenues and expenditures for pension funds routinely exhibit seasonal characteristics. Readers should, therefore, view quarterly changes with some caution.
Pension funds held in total under an annuity insurance contract are excluded from the survey.
The data are subject to revisions for a period of 18 months from initial release.
Products
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Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).
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