MSCI World

The MSCI World is a widely followed global stock market index that tracks the performance of around 1500 large and mid-cap companies across 23 developed countries.^[1]^[2] It is maintained by MSCI, formerly Morgan Stanley Capital International, and is used as a common benchmark for global stock funds intended to represent a broad cross-section of global markets.

The index includes a collection of stocks of all the developed markets in the world, as defined by MSCI. But because the index excludes stocks from emerging and frontier economies, it is less worldwide than the name suggests. A related index, the MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI), incorporated both developed and emerging countries. MSCI also produces a Frontier Markets index, including another 31 markets.^[3]

The MSCI World Index has been calculated since 1969,^[4] in various forms: without dividends (Price Index), with net or with gross dividends reinvested (Net and Gross Index), in US dollars, Euro and local currencies.

Countries/regions

The index includes companies in the following countries/regions:

Australia
Austria
Belgium
Canada
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Hong Kong
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Japan
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Portugal
Singapore
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
United Kingdom
United States

Sector representation

Energy (5%)

Materials (4%)

Industrials (10%)

Consumer Discretionary (11%)

Consumer Staples (8%)

Healthcare (14%)

Financials (13%)

Information Technology (22%)

Communication Services (7%)

Utilities (3%)

Real Estate (3%)

The GICS breakdown is shown here, with information technology being the biggest sector.

Total annual returns

Year	Gross Annual Return (a) ^{[citation needed]}^[5]
1970	−1.98%
1971	19.56%
1972	23.55%
1973	−14.51%
1974	−24.48%
1975	34.50%
1976	14.71%
1977	5.00%
1978	18.22%
1979	12.67%
1980	27.72%
1981	−3.30%
1982	11.27%
1983	23.28%
1984	5.77%
1985	41.77%
1986	42.80%
1987	16.76%
1988	23.95%
1989	17.19%
1990	−16.52%
1991	18.97%
1992	−4.66%
1993	23.13%
1994	5.58%
1995	21.32%
1996	14.00%
1997	16.23%
1998	24.80%
1999	25.34%
2000	−12.92%
2001	−16.52%
2002	−19.54%
2003	33.76%
2004	15.25%
2005	10.02%
2006	20.65%
2007	9.57%
2008	−40.33%
2009	30.79%
2010	12.34%
2011	−5.02%
2012	16.54%
2013	27.37%
2014	5.50%
2015	−0.32%
2016	8.15%
2017	23.07%
2018	−8.20%
2019	28.40%
2020	16.50%
2021	22.35%
2022	−17.73%
2023	24.42%