For years, few things were as reliable as the pensions that many employers would offer workers for their years of dedicated service, particularly in the public sector. After a career of service, most police officers and firefighters could typically rely on the fact that their long-term needs in retirement would be well-covered by a steady stream of income in the form of their government pension.
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Unfortunately, though, today several states are doing far worse than the rest of the country when it comes to securing the necessary funding for their pension obligations into the future, according to a new study from GOBankingRates.
The study compared the total size of a state’s unfunded pension liabilities in 2016 and 2017, how much it increased year over year, how much those liabilities represent on a per-capita basis, what the 2016 and 2017 funding ratios — the percentage of total pension obligations currently funded — were and how much the ratios changed year over year. The results show that a great many states are currently grappling with large pension obligations that, at the moment, they don’t appear ready to pay.
Here’s a look at the 10 states where the pension crisis has hit the hardest:
| State | Unfunded Liabilities 2017 | 2017 per Capita | 2017 Funding Ratio | |
| 1 | Connecticut | $127,788,768,899 | $35,731 | 19.7% |
| 2 | Arkansas | $58,430,317,385 | $19,553 | 31.1% |
| 3 | Mississippi | $80,403,262,959 | $26,902 | 24.2% |
| 4 | Kentucky | $111,369,923,048 | $25,100 | 20.9% |
| 5 | Hawaii | $40,089,375,714 | $28,063 | 27.2% |
| 6 | Alaska | $33,896,375,418 | $45,689 | 30.2% |
| 7 | Oregon | $109,451,211,506 | $26,738 | 33.2% |
| 8 | Illinois | $388,342,219,353 | $30,336 | 23.3% |
| 9 | California | $987,774,192,764 | $25,166 | 32.9% |
| 10 | Colorado | $118,394,342,516 | $21,369 | 28.6% |
The 10 states with the biggest pension crises show that the issue isn’t limited to a particular region or type of state. It might be easy to see Arkansas, Kentucky and Mississippi and conclude that large, unfunded pension liabilities are typically an issue among poor Southern states with low average incomes and high poverty rates.
However, that conclusion certainly doesn’t explain why Connecticut, California, Colorado, Illinois, Hawaii and Alaska also appear among the 10 states in the worst shape, as all of those states feature average household incomes in excess of $80,000. In fact, Connecticut, Alaska, Hawaii and California are all among the top 10 states for highest average income, making it clear that rich and poor states alike are struggling with this issue.
Here are the 10 states where the pension crisis is the least dire:
| State | Unfunded Liabilities 2017 | 2017 per Capita | 2017 Funding Ratio | |
| 1 | Kansas | $38,541,732,859 | $13,257 | 32.1% |
| 2 | Utah | $37,459,414,421 | $12,277 | 41.5% |
| 3 | New York | $345,252,415,832 | $17,485 | 46.3% |
| 4 | South Dakota | $11,710,286,670 | $13,531 | 48.1% |
| 5 | Tennessee | $50,553,359,525 | $7,601 | 45.9% |
| 6 | Oklahoma | $53,161,039,762 | $13,549 | 35.6% |
| 7 | Wisconsin | $59,602,602,815 | $10,314 | 61.5% |
| 8 | Maine | $18,547,934,726 | $13,930 | 41.4% |
| 9 | Nebraska | $18,688,179,588 | $9,799 | 39.7% |
| 10 | Virginia | $114,619,581,764 | $13,626 | 37.1% |