A Decade of Divergence: How Global Stock Markets Stacked Up

Over the past 10 years, the S&P 500 has been the standout performer among major global indexes, delivering a staggering 17% annualized return. That means a $10,000 investment would have nearly quintupled to $50,000 in the S&P 500. That wasn’t the only market posting impressive gains, however. Indexes from Brazil, India, and Vietnam also turned in strong double-digit returns, outpacing their counterparts in Europe and much of Asia.

One striking outlier is China. Despite the country’s economic weight, the Shanghai Composite Index (SSE) has shown little progress over the past decade. As of April 2025, it still hasn’t fully recovered to the highs it reached in mid-2015, before a dramatic bubble burst. That year, a surge of inexperienced retail investors, fueled by margin debt and speculative optimism, drove the index to unsustainable levels. When the market cracked, the SSE lost nearly a third of its value in just three weeks.

The infographic below, from our friends at Visual Capitalist, captures this global spread, highlighting where growth has surged, where it’s stalled, and how much geography can matter when it comes to equity returns.