OPERS releases financial reports

Funding at 82% as investments continued strong performance in 2025

By Michael Pramik, Ohio Public Employees Retirement System

July 9, 2026 – OPERS has published its latest annual financial reports, offering a comprehensive overview of our financial position, investment performance, actuarial data and member demographics. These reports reflect our continued commitment to transparency in managing your pension system.

Both the full Annual Comprehensive Financial Report and the condensed Popular Annual Financial Report are now available on our website for members and stakeholders to review. They highlight key accomplishments and data from the 2025 calendar year.

Here’s a snapshot of what you’ll find in the 2025 reports:

• OPERS had a total net position of $158.4 billion at the end of 2025, up from $142.6 billion from a year earlier. The change reflects strong investment returns during 2025. Net position represents the funds accumulated at year end to pay pension benefits, health care costs and distributions from deferred compensation accounts.
• Total fund returns for 2025 reflected a gain of 14.95%, compared with a 9.08% gain the previous year.
• The OPERS defined benefit portfolio returned 14.74%, above the assumed rate of return of 6.9%. The health care portfolio returned 16.40%, exceeding the assumed rate of return of 6.0%. The defined contribution portfolio returned 15.57%, ending the year at more than $3.5 billion in assets.
• The Dec. 31, 2025, pension actuarial valuation reflected that OPERS was 82 percent funded, with the ability to pay off its unfunded actuarial accrued liabilities in 17 years. Ohio requires OPERS to be within a 30-year amortization window.
• The Health Care Plan solvency years increased from 25 years at the end of 2023 to 27 years at the end of 2024. That’s the date of the latest health care fund valuation and thus doesn’t reflect 2025 investment performance.
• Membership topped 1.34 million. At the end of 2025, membership included 223,623 retirees, 315,810 active members and 809,051 inactive members.
• OPERS made pension benefit payments of $7.8 billion, up from $7.5 billion in 2024.
• Health care costs increased 11.7% to $610.1 million, from $546.1 million a year earlier.
• Employers contributed $2.78 billion to the system, up $144.6 million from 2024. Member contributions for pension and health care were $1.99 billion, and voluntary participant deferrals to Ohio Deferred Compensation totaled $700 million.
• In 2025, OPERS had 82 members who were more than 100 years old, with the oldest being 110.
• OPERS is good for Ohio. For every dollar we received from public employers in 2025, $3.02 was returned to the Ohio economy through pension and health care payments made to retirees. OPERS’ in-state custodian managed $129.5 billion in system assets, and $1.6 billion of the OPERS portfolio was invested with Ohio-based companies.
• Here are a few averages for new retirees in 2025:
  • Age at retirement: 63.8
  • Years of service at retirement: 24.1
  • Final average salary: $68,401
  • Pension at retirement: $34,014
  • Health care qualifying service credit years: 30

Michael Pramik

Michael Pramik is communication strategist for the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System and editor of the PERSpective blog. As an experienced business journalist, he clarifies complex pension policies and helps members make smart choices to secure their retirement.