If anyone needed more evidence that last year was a good one forretirement assets, the latest Towers Watson peek at 13 countriesaround the world should leave no doubt.

The report found that total net pension assets rose 9.5 percentto about $32 trillion dollars, with 59 percent of the total in theU.S.

Pension funds around the world rode a wave of rising stockprices and interest rates in 2013. After the U.S., where assetsrose 12 percent to $18.9 trillion, were Japan with 10.2percent of assets, and the United Kingdom, with 10.1 percent.

“During 2013, equities enjoyed their best calendar year ofrisk-adjusted returns since the financial crisis, and as a result,U.S. pension funds are in their best shape in many years,” saidChris DeMeo, head of Investment for the Americas, Towers Watson, ina statement. ”Generally, U.S. pension funds are now implementinginvestment strategies that are more flexible and adaptable, andcontain a broader view of risk to make greater allowancefor the sort of extreme economic and market volatility they haveexperienced during the past five years.”

As a share of GDP, pension assets now equal 83 percent, up from57 percent in 2008. For the U.S., the percentage of GDP reached 113percent at the end of 2013.

The shift from defined benefits plans to defined contributionsystems continued last year. Towers Watson noted that 47 percent ofU.S. retirement assets are in defined contribution plans and even countrieslike the Netherlands, Japan and Canada, which have heavily tiltedtoward defined benefit plans, are seeing a shift. In 2003, just 38percent of assets were in DC plans.

Although asset allocations differed among countries, 2013 saw ashift to more equities and fewer bonds being held in investmentportfolios. The U.S., Australia and the U.K. had higher equityholdings than any of the other seven largest countries.

For the top seven markets, which have the bulk of totalworldwide assets, the report found that two-thirds were in privatesector plans. In the U.S., the split was 84 percent to 16 percentin favor of private plans. Only Canada and Japan had more assets inpublic plans than in private ones.