The Real Story

There’s been a lot shared about STRS Ohio lately on social media, the Internet and email. Sadly, much of this information has been incomplete at best and incorrect at worst.

Learn The Real Story, the undeniable facts about your retirement system, by checking out the resources below.

Frequently Asked Questions

As of Aug. 31, 2023

$89.9

billion

total investments
Approximately

500,000

educators

active, inactive and retired
In August 2023

394

members

approved for service retirement benefits

Historical Funded Ratio (1993–2022)

The funded ratio is the pension plan’s assets as a percentage of what it owes to current and future retirees.

Umbrella
As of June 30, 2022

11.5 years

STRS Ohio funding period

This is how long STRS Ohio would need to fully fund benefits for current and future retirees.

Dollar bill
As of June 30, 2022

78.9%

Market value of assets funded ratio

This looks at the pension fund’s assets as a percentage of what it owes to current and future retirees.

Investment Information

Diversifying assets among domestic and international stocks, real estate, and alternative and fixed-income investments helps the pension system “weather the storm” of market fluctuations.

Investment distribution by fair value

as of Aug. 31, 2023

Schedule of largest investment holdings

as of June 30, 2022
Domestic equities — top 10 holdings International equities — top 10 holdings
Microsoft Corp. Roche Holding AG (Switzerland)
Apple Computer Inc. Taiwan Semicon Man (Taiwan)
Amazon Com Inc. Nestle SA (Switzerland)
Alphabet Inc. Class C Novo Nordisk A/S (Denmark)
Alphabet Inc. Novartis AG (Switzerland)
Unitedhealth Group Inc. Shell Plc. (United Kingdom)
Mastercard Inc. Class A SAP SE (Germany)
Johnson & Johnson Samsung Electronics Co. LTD (South Korea)
Nvidia Corp. Hitachi (Japan)
Tesla Inc. AIA Group LTD (Hong Kong)

Membership Information

STRS Ohio members include public school teachers and administrators and higher education faculty. Members are employed by 1,121 school districts, vocational schools, colleges and universities, county boards of developmental disabilities, and community and charter schools.

Person icon

Average full-time active educator

(for fiscal 2022)

13

Years service credit

$69,240

Salary
Person icon

Average new retiree with 34 or more years of service

(for retirement in fiscal 2022)

$69,000

Annual benefit

$157,000

Average Partial Lump-Sum Option Plan (PLOP) payment, if elected

Health care coverage:

Access to health care coverage is available for qualifying Defined Benefit and Combined Plan retirees and their families, as well as eligible disabled educators. Current enrollment is more than 108,000.

In fiscal 2022

$418

million

paid in medical and pharmacy costs for the Health Care Program enrollees — an average of more than $1.1 million per day

Economic Impact

Select a county or district from the menu below to view the number of STRS Ohio members, earnings and benefits paid throughout the state.

in fiscal 2022
Number of active members
Total active member earnings
Number of benefit recipients
Total payments to benefit recipients

Pension benefits by county

in fiscal 2022
As of June 30, 2022

8 out of 10

STRS Ohio benefit recipients live in Ohio
As of June 30, 2022

$5.7

billion

STRS Ohio benefits distibuted among 88 counties