S&P 500 · 1871–2026 · Robert Shiller's data

What investors in US stocks really earned

A regular chart shows only the index price. Here you can also see what dividends add and what inflation takes away.

Growth of $1

$1 invested in Jan 1871 · log scale Source: Robert J. Shiller · updated November 8, 2026

from to

$1 in US stocks · dividends reinvested · after inflation

×44.2K

+7.1% a year

That's how much the purchasing power of money invested in January 1871 grew with dividends reinvested: 7.1% a year above inflation over 156 years.

In nominal terms, $1 became $1.19M by October 2026. But prices rose 26.9 times over that time, so the real return is what counts: ×44.2K.

Dividends added about 4.3% a year of the 7.1% real return; price growth, 2.7%. Without dividends, purchasing power would have grown only 64.6 times.

Inflation took 2.1% a year: a nominal 9.4% a year turns into a real 7.1%.

Time machine

If I had put $1,000 into 500S&P 500 in January 1990

$46,568

today, with dividends

$17,669

in 1990 dollars

Show the chart

₿$1,000 in bitcoin, 2016

$107,231

×10710 years

$$1,000 in cash, 2016

$719

−28%after inflation

Bitcoin prices: Coin Metrics (CC BY-NC 4.0). Inflation: US consumer prices (CPI). Nominal dollars unless “after inflation” is stated.

Year-by-year table

Year (January)	Price	Price + dividends	Price − inflation	+ dividends − inflation
1871	×1	×1	×1	×1
1872	×1.09	×1.16	×1.08	×1.14
1873	×1.15	×1.29	×1.11	×1.24
1874	×1.05	×1.25	×1.06	×1.26
1875	×1.02	×1.31	×1.11	×1.42
1876	×1	×1.38	×1.15	×1.59
1877	×0.8	×1.19	×0.91	×1.35
1878	×0.73	×1.17	×0.99	×1.58
1879	×0.81	×1.36	×1.21	×2.05
1880	×1.15	×2.04	×1.44	×2.54
1881	×1.39	×2.58	×1.84	×3.41
1882	×1.33	×2.59	×1.63	×3.17
1883	×1.31	×2.68	×1.63	×3.34
1884	×1.17	×2.53	×1.58	×3.42
1885	×0.95	×2.22	×1.44	×3.34
1886	×1.17	×2.88	×1.83	×4.5
1887	×1.26	×3.23	×1.96	×5.03
1888	×1.2	×3.21	×1.78	×4.78
1889	×1.18	×3.31	×1.84	×5.17
1890	×1.21	×3.55	×1.98	×5.81
1891	×1.09	×3.33	×1.74	×5.32
1892	×1.24	×3.96	×2.11	×6.73
1893	×1.26	×4.2	×1.99	×6.63
1894	×0.97	×3.41	×1.77	×6.21
1895	×0.96	×3.53	×1.82	×6.71
1896	×0.96	×3.71	×1.8	×6.94
1897	×0.95	×3.83	×1.83	×7.37
1898	×1.1	×4.61	×2.06	×8.62
1899	×1.37	×5.96	×2.53	×11
1900	×1.37	×6.18	×2.17	×9.75
1901	×1.59	×7.47	×2.58	×12.1
1902	×1.83	×8.93	×2.89	×14.1
1903	×1.91	×9.67	×2.74	×13.9
1904	×1.5	×8.02	×2.27	×12.1
1905	×1.9	×10.6	×2.79	×15.6
1906	×2.22	×12.8	×3.27	×18.9
1907	×2.15	×12.9	×3.03	×18.2
1908	×1.54	×9.81	×2.22	×14.1
1909	×2.04	×13.7	×2.84	×19.1
1910	×2.27	×15.9	×2.86	×20
1911	×2.09	×15.3	×2.82	×20.7
1912	×2.05	×15.9	×2.8	×21.7
1913	×2.09	×17	×2.66	×21.7
1914	×1.89	×16.2	×2.35	×20.2
1915	×1.68	×15.3	×2.08	×18.9
1916	×2.1	×20.1	×2.52	×24.1
1917	×2.16	×21.8	×2.3	×23.2
1918	×1.62	×17.7	×1.45	×15.8
1919	×1.77	×20.9	×1.34	×15.8
1920	×1.99	×25.1	×1.28	×16.2
1921	×1.6	×21.6	×1.05	×14.1
1922	×1.64	×23.7	×1.21	×17.5
1923	×2	×30.6	×1.49	×22.7
1924	×1.99	×32.3	×1.43	×23.3
1925	×2.38	×41.1	×1.72	×29.6
1926	×2.85	×51.7	×1.98	×36
1927	×3.02	×57.7	×2.15	×41.1
1928	×3.95	×79.1	×2.84	×57
1929	×5.6	×117	×4.08	×85.1
1930	×4.89	×106	×3.56	×77.1
1931	×3.6	×81.7	×2.82	×64.1
1932	×1.87	×45.6	×1.63	×39.7
1933	×1.6	×42.8	×1.54	×41.3
1934	×2.37	×67	×2.24	×63.2
1935	×2.09	×61.6	×1.91	×56.5
1936	×3.1	×95.5	×2.8	×86.2
1937	×3.96	×127	×3.5	×112
1938	×2.55	×86.1	×2.24	×75.5
1939	×2.82	×101	×2.51	×89.9
1940	×2.77	×104	×2.48	×93.3
1941	×2.38	×94.8	×2.1	×83.8
1942	×2.01	×86.2	×1.6	×68.4
1943	×2.27	×105	×1.68	×77.3
1944	×2.67	×130	×1.91	×92.8
1945	×3.04	×155	×2.13	×109
1946	×4.06	×216	×2.78	×148
1947	×3.43	×190	×1.99	×110
1948	×3.34	×195	×1.76	×103
1949	×3.46	×214	×1.8	×111
1950	×3.8	×251	×2.02	×133
1951	×4.78	×338	×2.34	×166
1952	×5.45	×412	×2.56	×194
1953	×5.9	×473	×2.76	×222
1954	×5.73	×487	×2.66	×226
1955	×8.02	×716	×3.74	×334
1956	×9.94	×923	×4.62	×429
1957	×10.2	×986	×4.62	×445
1958	×9.26	×929	×4.04	×405
1959	×12.5	×1,304	×5.38	×560
1960	×13.1	×1,404	×5.56	×597
1961	×13.5	×1,495	×5.63	×625
1962	×15.6	×1,781	×6.46	×740
1963	×14.7	×1,735	×6.01	×711
1964	×17.2	×2,103	×6.95	×848
1965	×19.4	×2,440	×7.75	×975
1966	×21	×2,724	×8.24	×1,068
1967	×19	×2,549	×7.21	×966
1968	×21.4	×2,960	×7.82	×1,082
1969	×23	×3,275	×8.04	×1,147
1970	×20.3	×2,995	×6.71	×988
1971	×21.1	×3,221	×6.59	×1,009
1972	×23.3	×3,672	×7.06	×1,113
1973	×26.7	×4,328	×7.8	×1,266
1974	×21.6	×3,624	×5.79	×969
1975	×16.3	×2,861	×3.91	×684
1976	×21.8	×3,982	×4.89	×893
1977	×23.4	×4,430	×4.98	×944
1978	×20.3	×4,031	×4.05	×804
1979	×22.5	×4,687	×4.1	×855
1980	×25	×5,492	×4	×880
1981	×30	×6,924	×4.29	×992
1982	×26.4	×6,426	×3.49	×849
1983	×32.5	×8,362	×4.14	×1,066
1984	×37.5	×10.1K	×4.58	×1,231
1985	×38.6	×10.9K	×4.57	×1,284
1986	×46.9	×13.7K	×5.33	×1,562
1987	×59.6	×18.1K	×6.68	×2,023
1988	×56.4	×17.6K	×6.08	×1,898
1989	×64.3	×20.8K	×6.62	×2,139
1990	×76.6	×25.6K	×7.49	×2,502
1991	×73.3	×25.4K	×6.79	×2,348
1992	×93.7	×33.5K	×8.46	×3,020
1993	×98	×36.1K	×8.57	×3,151
1994	×107	×40.3K	×9.08	×3,433
1995	×105	×40.7K	×8.69	×3,379
1996	×138	×55.1K	×11.2	×4,451
1997	×173	×70.2K	×13.5	×5,502
1998	×217	×89.8K	×16.7	×6,929
1999	×281	×118K	×21.3	×8,963
2000	×321	×137K	×23.7	×10.1K
2001	×301	×129K	×21.4	×9,214
2002	×257	×112K	×18.1	×7,882
2003	×202	×89.5K	×13.8	×6,137
2004	×255	×115K	×17.2	×7,742
2005	×266	×122K	×17.4	×7,974
2006	×288	×134K	×18.1	×8,446
2007	×321	×152K	×19.8	×9,383
2008	×311	×150K	×18.3	×8,869
2009	×195	×96.7K	×11.5	×5,707
2010	×253	×129K	×14.6	×7,411
2011	×289	×150K	×16.3	×8,487
2012	×293	×155K	×16.1	×8,527
2013	×333	×180K	×18	×9,755
2014	×410	×226K	×21.9	×12.1K
2015	×457	×257K	×24.4	×13.7K
2016	×432	×248K	×22.7	×13K
2017	×512	×300K	×26.3	×15.4K
2018	×628	×376K	×31.6	×18.9K
2019	×587	×358K	×29.1	×17.7K
2020	×738	×458K	×35.7	×22.1K
2021	×854	×540K	×40.7	×25.7K
2022	×1,030	×660K	×45.7	×29.3K
2023	×892	×581K	×37.2	×24.2K
2024	×1,085	×718K	×43.8	×29K
2025	×1,347	×903K	×52.8	×35.4K
2026	×1,561	×1.06M	×59.8	×40.6K
Oct 2026	×1,739	×1.19M	×64.6	×44.2K

How it is calculated

Source: Robert Shiller's monthly S&P Composite data (Yale University, 2013 Nobel laureate), from 1871 to October 2026.
Price is the average of daily closes in the month, not the month-end close. Before 1926 it is the Cowles Commission reconstruction; from 1926, the Standard & Poor's index (90 companies until March 1957, then the S&P 500).
Dividends are reinvested monthly: each month's dividend buys more of the index at that month's price. Taxes, commissions and fund fees are ignored, so a real investor would have earned somewhat less.
Inflation: the US consumer price index (CPI-U; before 1913, the Warren and Pearson reconstruction). Over the period prices rose 26.9 times.
Preliminary data: dividends from July 2026 on are estimated from the last known value; the latest month's price and recent inflation are Shiller's preliminary estimates.
Verification: on every update our calculation is compared with Shiller's own “Real Total Return Price” column; if they differ, the data is not published.