State retirement profile · Form 5500
According to DOL Form 5500 filings (plan year 2024), employer-sponsored 401(k), pension, and other retirement plans headquartered in Illinois report the totals below.
Data updated 2026-08-25
$784.9B across 5,745 plans
According to DOL Form 5500 filings (plan year 2024), Illinois has 5,745 employer-sponsored retirement plans holding $784.9B in total assets for 4,477,495 participants, ranking 4th nationally by plan assets, with 74% structured as 401(k)s and an average of $137M per plan.
The state in one line
Illinois hosts 5,745 employer-sponsored retirement plans holding $784.9B for 4,477,495 participants, the 4th-largest state by plan assets.
Illinois: 5,745 employer-sponsored plans (4,231 401(k)), $784.9B aggregate assets, 4,477,495 participants. Average plan: $137M; largest is Central States, Southeast & Southwest Areas Pension Plan at $48.2B. Leading sector by assets: Manufacturing (25%). These figures aggregate the 5,745 Form 5500 filings Illinois sponsors submitted for plan year 2024, counted by sponsor headquarters rather than participant residence; a plan administered in Illinois can cover workers across several states, and the methodology page details that HQ-vs-residence distinction. DOL Form 5500 methodology + HQ-vs-residence caveats →
Among plans headquartered here, Manufacturing accounts for $195.1B across 1,175 filings, ahead of Finance & Insurance at $114.5B. Sector mix is a Form 5500-derived signal: it reflects where sponsors file from, not where every participant lives.
DOL Form 5500 plan year 2024
Employee Stock Ownership Plans here hold $14.9B. ESOP density is uneven across states; when the count clears a meaningful floor, the ESOP ranking and industry pages are the better drill-downs than a 401(k)-only read.
DOL Form 5500 plan year 2024
Illinois sits in the top decile of U.S. states by Form 5500 plan assets (#4 of 56), so national rankings and peer comparisons are the useful next read.
DOL Form 5500 plan year 2024
Illinois's place in the national asset distribution
All states with reported Form 5500 plan assets · plan year 2024
$784,943,143,728 Top 5% higher than 95% of 56 states with reported plan assets
Dashed line + filled bar = this entry, among states with reported plan assets.
Source U.S. Department of Labor, EBSA Form 5500 public disclosure dataset · plan year 2024
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, EBSA Form 5500 public disclosure dataset · plan year 2024.
Top sectors by Form 5500 plan assets for sponsors headquartered here (plan year 2024).
| Industry | Plans | Assets |
|---|---|---|
| Manufacturing | 1,175 | $195.1B |
| Finance & Insurance | 448 | $114.5B |
| Professional & Technical Services | 883 | $102.8B |
| Transportation & Warehousing | 171 | $97.3B |
| Construction | 362 | $64.2B |
States ranked adjacent to Illinois by total retirement plan assets.
Two DOL Form 5500-derived peer sets for Illinois, each a different nationwide metric so the neighborhoods are not geographic containment (the asset-ranked nearby list above stays regional).
Nearest other states by reported employer plan filings (5,745 here).
Nearest other states by aggregate plan assets ($784.9B here).
Industry-mix reading
Ways to act on Illinois's numbers.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, EBSA Form 5500 public disclosure dataset. Shows the top 25 plans by total assets headquartered in Illinois, out of 130,145 ERISA-covered plans nationally. Plan year 2024.
Source: DOL EFAST2 filing system (efast.dol.gov) - state is the plan sponsor's headquarters state as recorded on the Form 5500 filing.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.