Recent Calendar Year Returns
These yearly figures help show what people often miss when they only look at one average number. A global equity index can have very strong years, weak years, and negative years, even when the longer-term average still looks solid.
What This Tracker Uses
This page uses the official MSCI World Index factsheet as the return source. That index covers large and mid-sized companies across developed markets.
- 5-year and 10-year annualized returns are published directly by MSCI in the February 27, 2026 factsheet.
- 15-year annualized return is inferred from the same official MSCI 15-year cumulative chart, because MSCI does not show a separate 15-year annualized row in that factsheet.
- Calendar year returns shown here are the last 5 completed MSCI World calendar years from the same factsheet.
Why This Is Useful
People often ask what MSCI World “usually returns.” The honest answer is that it depends on the time period. A 5-year, 10-year, or 15-year annualized figure can be helpful for perspective, but the year-by-year numbers remind you that markets do not move in a straight line.
If you want to take this return assumption and build it into a savings plan, go next to the Compound Interest Calculator. If you want to connect it to financial independence planning, open the FIRE Calculator.