S&P 500 annual returns dataset
98 calendar years, 1928 to 2025. Free to download and cite. Data from Aswath Damodaran, NYU Stern.
Download
98 rows, one per calendar year. Data last retrieved from the source on September 27, 2026.
- sp500-annual-returns.csv
- sp500-annual-returns.json (same rows, with column definitions)
Columns
- year
- Calendar year, January to December.
- sp500_total_return
- S&P 500 return including dividends, as a decimal (0.177237 = 17.7237%). Source column "S&P 500 (includes dividends)".
- sp500_price_return
- S&P 500 return from price change only, as a decimal. No dividends. Calculated by WealthSim from year-end index levels in the source file.
- inflation
- US annual inflation as a decimal, the CPI change as included in the source file (FRED CPIAUCNS), converted from percent.
Source and methodology
sp500_total_return is copied from the column “S&P 500 (includes dividends)” of Aswath Damodaran, NYU Stern, "Historical Returns on Stocks, Bonds and Bills", file histretSP.xls, on pages.stern.nyu.edu. Retrieved September 27, 2026. sp500_price_return is calculated by WealthSim as the year-end S&P 500 index level divided by the previous year-end level, minus 1, using the index levels in the file's “S&P 500 & Raw Data” sheet. inflation is the file's “Inflation Rate” sheet (the FRED CPIAUCNS annual change) divided by 100. All values are rounded to six decimals.
Total return includes dividends. Price return does not. Both are calendar-year figures, so 2025 runs January to December. Past returns do not predict future returns.
Licence and credit
The data is Aswath Damodaran's. His site states no licence for it. His data usage page says there are “no strings attached” and thanks users who acknowledge him. WealthSim does not relicense the data, so credit Damodaran when you use it. We have not checked whether the underlying S&P 500 index series carries separate redistribution terms from S&P Dow Jones Indices.
WealthSim's own metadata, column definitions and documentation are published under CC BY 4.0. That licence does not cover the data values.
How to cite
Cite this dataset and, where you can, the original source as well.
APA
WealthSim. (2026). S&P 500 annual total returns and US inflation, 1928-2025 [Data set]. https://www.wealthsim.app/data/sp500-returns. Original data: Damodaran, A. Historical returns on stocks, bonds and bills. NYU Stern. https://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/datafile/histret.htmlBibTeX
@misc{wealthsim_sp500_returns_2025,
author = {{WealthSim}},
title = {S\&P 500 annual total returns and US inflation, 1928-2025},
year = {2026},
publisher = {WealthSim},
url = {https://www.wealthsim.app/data/sp500-returns},
note = {Data set. Original data: Aswath Damodaran, NYU Stern, Historical Returns on Stocks, Bonds and Bills, https://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/datafile/histret.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.}
}A DOI will replace the URL and the placeholder 10.5281/zenodo.XXXXXXX once the dataset is deposited on Zenodo.
S&P 500 annual total returns and US inflation, 1928-2025
| Year | Total return | Price return | Inflation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1928 | 43.81% | 37.88% | -1.16% |
| 1929 | -8.30% | -11.91% | 0.58% |
| 1930 | -25.12% | -28.48% | -6.40% |
| 1931 | -43.84% | -47.07% | -9.32% |
| 1932 | -8.64% | -14.78% | -10.27% |
| 1933 | 49.98% | 44.08% | 0.76% |
| 1934 | -1.19% | -4.71% | 1.52% |
| 1935 | 46.74% | 41.37% | 2.99% |
| 1936 | 31.94% | 27.92% | 1.45% |
| 1937 | -35.34% | -38.59% | 2.86% |
| 1938 | 29.28% | 24.55% | -2.78% |
| 1939 | -1.10% | -5.17% | 0.00% |
| 1940 | -10.67% | -15.09% | 0.71% |
| 1941 | -12.77% | -17.86% | 9.93% |
| 1942 | 19.17% | 12.43% | 9.03% |
| 1943 | 25.06% | 19.45% | 2.96% |
| 1944 | 19.03% | 13.80% | 2.30% |
| 1945 | 35.82% | 30.72% | 2.25% |
| 1946 | -8.43% | -11.87% | 18.13% |
| 1947 | 5.20% | 0.00% | 8.84% |
| 1948 | 5.70% | -0.65% | 2.99% |
| 1949 | 18.30% | 10.46% | -2.07% |
| 1950 | 30.81% | 21.68% | 5.93% |
| 1951 | 23.68% | 16.35% | 6.00% |
| 1952 | 18.15% | 11.78% | 0.75% |
| 1953 | -1.21% | -6.62% | 0.75% |
| 1954 | 52.56% | 45.02% | -0.74% |
| 1955 | 32.60% | 26.40% | 0.37% |
| 1956 | 7.44% | 2.62% | 2.99% |
| 1957 | -10.46% | -14.31% | 2.90% |
| 1958 | 43.72% | 38.06% | 1.76% |
| 1959 | 12.06% | 8.48% | 1.73% |
| 1960 | 0.34% | -2.97% | 1.36% |
| 1961 | 26.64% | 23.13% | 0.67% |
| 1962 | -8.81% | -11.81% | 1.33% |
| 1963 | 22.61% | 18.89% | 1.64% |
| 1964 | 16.42% | 12.97% | 0.97% |
| 1965 | 12.40% | 9.06% | 1.92% |
| 1966 | -9.97% | -13.09% | 3.46% |
| 1967 | 23.80% | 20.09% | 3.04% |
| 1968 | 10.81% | 7.66% | 4.72% |
| 1969 | -8.24% | -11.36% | 6.20% |
| 1970 | 3.56% | 0.10% | 5.57% |
| 1971 | 14.22% | 10.79% | 3.27% |
| 1972 | 18.76% | 15.63% | 3.41% |
| 1973 | -14.31% | -17.37% | 8.71% |
| 1974 | -25.90% | -29.72% | 12.34% |
| 1975 | 37.00% | 31.55% | 6.94% |
| 1976 | 23.83% | 19.15% | 4.86% |
| 1977 | -6.98% | -11.50% | 6.70% |
| 1978 | 6.51% | 1.06% | 9.02% |
| 1979 | 18.52% | 12.31% | 13.29% |
| 1980 | 31.74% | 25.77% | 12.52% |
| 1981 | -4.70% | -9.73% | 8.92% |
| 1982 | 20.42% | 14.76% | 3.83% |
| 1983 | 22.34% | 17.27% | 3.79% |
| 1984 | 6.15% | 1.40% | 3.95% |
| 1985 | 31.24% | 26.33% | 3.80% |
| 1986 | 18.49% | 14.62% | 1.10% |
| 1987 | 5.81% | 2.03% | 4.43% |
| 1988 | 16.54% | 12.40% | 4.42% |
| 1989 | 31.48% | 27.25% | 4.65% |
| 1990 | -3.06% | -6.56% | 6.11% |
| 1991 | 30.23% | 26.31% | 3.06% |
| 1992 | 7.49% | 4.46% | 2.90% |
| 1993 | 9.97% | 7.06% | 2.75% |
| 1994 | 1.33% | -1.54% | 2.67% |
| 1995 | 37.20% | 34.11% | 2.54% |
| 1996 | 22.68% | 20.26% | 3.32% |
| 1997 | 33.10% | 31.01% | 1.70% |
| 1998 | 28.34% | 26.67% | 1.61% |
| 1999 | 20.89% | 19.53% | 2.68% |
| 2000 | -9.03% | -10.14% | 3.39% |
| 2001 | -11.85% | -13.04% | 1.55% |
| 2002 | -21.97% | -23.37% | 2.38% |
| 2003 | 28.36% | 26.38% | 1.88% |
| 2004 | 10.74% | 8.99% | 3.26% |
| 2005 | 4.83% | 3.00% | 3.42% |
| 2006 | 15.61% | 13.62% | 2.54% |
| 2007 | 5.48% | 3.53% | 4.08% |
| 2008 | -36.55% | -38.49% | 0.09% |
| 2009 | 25.94% | 23.45% | 2.72% |
| 2010 | 14.82% | 12.78% | 1.50% |
| 2011 | 2.10% | -0.00% | 2.96% |
| 2012 | 15.89% | 13.41% | 1.74% |
| 2013 | 32.15% | 29.60% | 1.50% |
| 2014 | 13.52% | 11.39% | 0.76% |
| 2015 | 1.38% | -0.73% | 0.73% |
| 2016 | 11.77% | 9.54% | 2.07% |
| 2017 | 21.61% | 19.42% | 2.11% |
| 2018 | -4.23% | -6.24% | 1.91% |
| 2019 | 31.21% | 28.88% | 2.29% |
| 2020 | 18.02% | 16.26% | 1.36% |
| 2021 | 28.47% | 26.89% | 7.04% |
| 2022 | -18.04% | -19.44% | 6.45% |
| 2023 | 26.06% | 24.23% | 3.35% |
| 2024 | 24.88% | 23.31% | 2.89% |
| 2025 | 17.72% | 16.39% | 2.74% |
Shown to two decimals. The downloads carry six. Source: Aswath Damodaran, NYU Stern, "Historical Returns on Stocks, Bonds and Bills".
Educational data, not financial advice. To project your own plan, use the S&P 500 calculator.