Find A Metric To Compare Performance

We track critical economic indicators that affect US consumers and businesses in a direct way. Our goal is to provide facts on how these metrics are performing under different American presidents.

We are currently tracking three metrics and are working hard to add more in the very near future.

Metrics
Stock Market Performance By President
S&P
cuml. returns
38.2%
Nasdaq
cuml. returns
24.3%
Dow
cuml. returns
28.5%
Last Updated: 03/27/2024
We track the S&P, Dow Jones and the NASDAQ by president and update our data after market close daily
Jobs Creation Growth By President
Payrolls growth
10.6%
Last Jobs Report: Feb of 2024
Get the bottom line on jobs growth by president starting from 1945.
GDP Growth By President
GDP
cuml. returns
18.8%
Last GDP Report: Quarter 4 of 2023
We track GDP from every quarter starting from 1961.
More metrics coming soon!
  • Trade deficit
  • Total debt
  • Hourly wages
  • Inflation
  • Federal deficit
  • Unemployment rate
How We Calculate Our Data

We capture the data as soon as it’s available to us – stock market data after daily market close, jobs data once a month and GDP data once a quarter. After verifying the raw data, we then calculate updated cumulative and annualized performance data for the current president (the data for previous presidents have been calculated and verified in advance).

Some metrics are measured daily (like stock market performance), monthly (like jobs growth) and quarterly (like GDP growth). We start measurement of performance for a president from the first full time period after their inauguration. For stock market performance, it is the first stock market day in office. For jobs growth, it’s either first full calendar month in office (so if you are inaugurated in the middle of January, the first full month is February). This ensures a consistent starting point across all presidencies.

Also, read these articles in our Learning Center:

Want to share our charts but need to verify our data?

We are happy to share the raw data and methodologies we use with any media organization that wants to link to or share our charts and data. If that is of interest to you, please contact us.

 (Due the amount of requests, we must limit inquiries and responses to media representatives only.)

Learn more about our metrics

How do we come up with our numbers? How can you crunch the numbers yourself? What are the best indicators of an economy’s well-being and what might that information mean to you individually? It’s all in the Learning Center.

Why Do We Use Percentage Gain to Calculate Performance in the Stock Market and Not the Total Point Gain?

The Dow was up 150 points. S&P increased by 30 points. These are the typical headlines we see when we go over stock market news. The media seems obsessed with these point increases and decreases, but do they provide the right perspective? If the Dow gains 150 points from 25000 to 25150 and S&P gains […]

GDP Growth: What’s the Ideal GDP Growth Rate?

Gross domestic product (GDP) is one of the key economic indicators used to measure the economy and track its progress. Often, people equate a high GDP with economic prosperity and a low GDP with a failing economy. However, this isn’t always so. The correlation is not as simple as high is good and low is […]

Measuring Cumulative Performance and Annualized Performance

When analyzing presidential performance, we track various metrics including the stock market, GDP, and jobs growth. In all of these metrics, we use both cumulative and annualized performance. These are both key tools in understanding presidential performance across these key economic indicators. What is cumulative performance? Cumulative growth refers to the total percentage increase of […]