The National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS) issued a new report titled, Fortifying Main Street: The Economic Benefit of Public Pension Dollars in Small Towns and Rural America in July, 2022.  The report illustrates the positive impact of benefit dollars from public pension plans.  Two of the key findings are as follows:

• Public pension plan benefit dollars represent between one and three percent of GDP on average.
• Rural counties have the highest percentages of their populations receiving public pension benefits (not counting counties that contain state capitols)

2,922 counties from 43 states were studied for this report.  The impact of benefits are measured in several ways: as a percentage of GDP by county; as a percentage of total personal income by county; and by categorizing counties as metropolitan, small town, or rural.

You can access a summary of the report or download the full report.