As communities around the country struggle to fund the retirements of their public employees, pension funds have looked to private equity for its consistent outperformance of public markets, bolstering pensions' portfolios across the country. 

The Private Equity Growth Capital Council (PEGCC) released a new analysis of returns provided by private equity investments compared to the S&P 500.  Based on the analysis of private equity benchmarks, private equity outperformed (net of fees) the S&P 500 for 1, 5 and 10-year time horizons by 1.8, 3.7 and 7.0 percentage points, respectively.  Private equity underperformed the S&P 500 during the 3-year time horizon due to the index's historic dip during the financial crisis, which inflated the S&P 500's gains during this period, the report said.

"The data released today highlights the consistent outperformance of private equity compared to public markets," said PEGCC President and CEO Steve Judge. "The benefits of private equity returns to the pensions, charitable foundations and university endowments are clear.  No other asset class provides the consistently superior returns of private equity, helping to secure the retirements of millions of teachers, firefighters and police."