As politicians and pundits continue to hammer the private equity industry during this election, the industry’s lobby group has culled public data from pension plans across the US in an attempt to show the impact private equity has had on nearly 17.8 million beneficiaries .

Using the data, the Private Equity Growth Capital Council has released an interactive map - Private Equity at Work in Your State - showing, state by state, how many companies are backed by financial sponsors, the number of employees across them and the total number of dollars invested between 2002 and 2011.