Dow Jones by presidential term

An animated chart of the Dow Jones Industrial Average for each month of a presidential term.

To help evaluate the performance of presidents in growing the economy, here is an animated chart of the Dow Jones Industrial Average for each month of a presidential term. The performance of the stock market is not the same as the performance of the economy, and the DIA is not a broad measure of the performance of stock markets. Nonetheless, it is often cited.

The base data in this chart is the average daily close for all days in a month. Then, I compute the percentage change by month since the start each presidential term. Data is through July 2020. Data is shown for the first term of presidents.

Use the visualization below, or click here to open it in its own window. Hovering over any line will highlight it so it stands out from others.

This chart can help evaluate claims presidents and their supporters make. Find more data like this in the Presidential data explorer. This interactive visualization contains other data like jobs, unemployment, GDP, and inflation. You can learn more about the visualization and use it here: Visualization: Presidential data explorer.