S&P 500: returns since 1970

The S&P 500 tracks the 500 largest U.S. public companies and is the most-followed stock index in the world — the benchmark almost everything else is measured against.

One honesty note: this is the price index, without dividends reinvested, in U.S. dollars. The total-return figure would be higher, and we say so on every page. The comparison against U.S. inflation (CPI) shows the gain in real terms.

The index has lived through three defining round trips since our series begins in 2000. It peaked at the height of the dot-com mania in March 2000, then lost roughly half its value into 2002; it set a new high in October 2007, only to fall more than 50 percent during the 2008 financial crisis; and the March 2020 pandemic crash erased a third of its value in barely a month before a fast recovery. Each time the price recovered eventually, but the table below shows how much the entry year mattered.

Descriptive, educational content computed from official public data. Not investment advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results.