Last verified 18 April 2026

Every US Recession Since 1854: The Complete NBER History

Since NBER started dating US recessions, there have been 34. Here they are, from the Panic of 1857 to the COVID recession of 2020, with duration, depth, and the cause economists attribute to each.

18571880191019401960198020002020

Bar height proportional to recession duration. Brighter bars = post-WWII recessions. Source: NBER Business Cycle Dating.

Five Defining Recessions

Long Depression (1873-79)

65 monthsPre-GDP era

The longest recession in NBER history. Railroad overbuilding collapsed, triggering bank failures and a deflationary spiral. Germany, Britain, and the US all contracted simultaneously - one of history's first global recessions.

Great Depression (1929-33)

43 months-30% GDP, 25% unemployment

The defining economic catastrophe of the 20th century. Bank failures wiped out depositors. The Smoot-Hawley tariff collapsed global trade. The Fed contracted the money supply. Every policy mistake that could be made was made. The New Deal and WWII spending ultimately ended it.

Volcker Recession (1981-82)

16 months-2.6% GDP, 10.8% unemployment

A deliberate recession. Fed Chair Paul Volcker raised the federal funds rate to 20% to break double-digit inflation. Unemployment hit 10.8% - the highest since the Depression. But inflation fell from 14% to 3%. The policy cost was high; the structural benefit was lasting.

Great Recession (2007-09)

18 months-4.3% GDP, 10.0% unemployment

The longest post-WWII recession. The collapse of the subprime mortgage market triggered the worst financial crisis since 1929. 8.7 million jobs were lost. The Fed balance sheet expanded from $900B to $2.3T. Recovery took years but eventual bank capital reforms changed the system.

Full case study

COVID Recession (2020)

2 months-10.1% GDP (peak to trough), 14.7% unemployment

The shortest and sharpest recession in US history. Government-mandated lockdowns halted the economy overnight. 22 million jobs were lost in two months. The $5T+ fiscal response and rapid vaccine development drove the fastest recovery in NBER history.

Full case study

All 34 NBER Recessions (1854-2020)

#	Label	Peak	Trough	Duration	GDP Contraction	Peak Unemp	Primary Cause
1	Panic of 1857	Jun 1857	Dec 1858	18 mo	N/A	N/A	Financial panic
2	Pre-Civil War	Oct 1860	Jun 1861	8 mo	N/A	N/A	Pre-Civil War contraction
3	Post-Civil War	Apr 1865	Dec 1867	32 mo	N/A	N/A	Post-Civil War contraction
4	Panic of 1869	Jun 1869	Dec 1870	18 mo	N/A	N/A	Financial panic (Gould/Fisk gold corner)
5	Long Depression	Oct 1873	Mar 1879	65 mo	N/A	N/A	Railroad overbuilding, bank panic
6	Depression of 1882-85	Mar 1882	May 1885	38 mo	N/A	N/A	Railroad over-investment, bank failures
7	1887-88 Contraction	Mar 1887	Apr 1888	13 mo	N/A	N/A	Railroad speculation
8	1890-91 Recession	Jul 1890	May 1891	10 mo	N/A	N/A	Baring Brothers crisis, agricultural collapse
9	Panic of 1893	Jan 1893	Jun 1894	17 mo	N/A	N/A	Railroad overbuilding, gold reserve crisis
10	Depression of 1895-97	Dec 1895	Jun 1897	18 mo	N/A	N/A	Gold standard deflation
11	1899-1900 Recession	Jun 1899	Dec 1900	18 mo	N/A	N/A	Industrial overproduction
12	1902-04 Recession	Sep 1902	Aug 1904	23 mo	N/A	N/A	Steel and railroad downturn
13	Panic of 1907	May 1907	Jun 1908	13 mo	N/A	N/A	Bank panic, trust company failures
14	1910-12 Recession	Jan 1910	Jan 1912	24 mo	N/A	N/A	Credit tightening, agricultural slowdown
15	1913-14 Recession	Jan 1913	Dec 1914	23 mo	N/A	N/A	Pre-WWI credit tightening
16	Post-WWI Contraction	Aug 1918	Mar 1919	7 mo	N/A	N/A	Post-WWI demobilisation
17	Depression of 1920-21	Jan 1920	Jul 1921	18 mo	-6.9%	11.7%	Deflation after WWI inflation
18	1923-24 Recession	May 1923	Jul 1924	14 mo	N/A	N/A	Post-boom inventory correction
19	1926-27 Recession	Oct 1926	Nov 1927	13 mo	N/A	N/A	Auto industry slump, construction decline
20	Great Depression	Aug 1929	Mar 1933	43 mo	-30%	25%	Stock crash, banking failures, deflation
21	Recession of 1937-38	May 1937	Jun 1938	13 mo	-11%	20%	Premature fiscal/monetary tightening
22	Post-WWII ContractionNBER	Feb 1945	Oct 1945	8 mo	-10.9%	3.9%	WWII demobilisation
23	1948-49 RecessionNBER	Nov 1948	Oct 1949	11 mo	-1.7%	7.9%	Post-war demand correction
24	Korean War RecessionNBER	Jul 1953	May 1954	10 mo	-2.6%	5.9%	Post-Korean War defence cuts
25	1957-58 RecessionNBER	Aug 1957	Apr 1958	8 mo	-3.7%	7.4%	Fed tightening, inventory adjustment
26	1960-61 RecessionNBER	Apr 1960	Feb 1961	10 mo	-1.6%	7.1%	Pre-election monetary tightening
27	1969-70 RecessionNBER	Dec 1969	Nov 1970	11 mo	-0.6%	6.1%	Vietnam-era monetary tightening
28	First Oil CrisisNBER	Nov 1973	Mar 1975	16 mo	-4.9%	9%	OPEC oil embargo
29	1980 RecessionNBER	Jan 1980	Jul 1980	6 mo	-2.2%	7.8%	Second oil crisis, initial Volcker tightening
30	Volcker RecessionNBER	Jul 1981	Nov 1982	16 mo	-2.6%	10.8%	Volcker shock to break inflation
31	Gulf War RecessionNBER	Jul 1990	Mar 1991	8 mo	-1.4%	7.8%	S&L crisis, Gulf War oil shock
32	Dotcom RecessionNBER	Mar 2001	Nov 2001	8 mo	-0.3%	6.3%	Dotcom bust, 9/11
33	Great RecessionNBER	Dec 2007	Jun 2009	18 mo	-4.3%	10%	Subprime mortgage crisis
34	COVID RecessionNBER	Feb 2020	Apr 2020	2 mo	-10.1%	14.7%	COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns

Source: NBER Business Cycle Dating Committee. GDP contraction and unemployment data from BEA and BLS. Pre-1929 data based on historical estimates. N/A = pre-modern data not available.

How Recessions Have Changed Over Time

The data reveals a striking structural shift across the 172-year NBER history. Pre-WWII recessions averaged approximately 18 months in duration; the post-WWII average is 10.3 months. The change reflects four structural improvements in economic management and resilience:

Automatic fiscal stabilisers: Unemployment insurance (created 1935) and social security (1935) automatically inject spending into the economy when it contracts, cushioning the demand shortfall without requiring Congressional action.
Deposit insurance: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC, 1933) eliminated the bank-run dynamic that turned 1929's stock crash into a 43-month depression. When deposits are insured, households don't rush to withdraw cash from banks at the first sign of trouble.
Active monetary policy: The Federal Reserve's ability and willingness to cut rates, extend emergency lending, and (since 2008) purchase assets means recessions are met with counter-cyclical policy rather than passive observation.
Service-sector diversification: Manufacturing (highly cyclical) has fallen from over 30% of GDP in 1945 to about 11% today. The service sector (less cyclical) is now dominant. A manufacturing downturn no longer necessarily propagates to the whole economy.

The two exceptions to the trend toward shorter recessions are the Great Recession (18 months, 2007-09) - a financial crisis severe enough to overwhelm the stabilisers - and the Long Depression (65 months, 1873-79) - a pre-FDIC, pre-automatic-stabiliser era event.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the longest recession in US history?

The longest recession in NBER history is the Long Depression of 1873-79, which lasted 65 months (over 5 years). It was triggered by the collapse of railroad speculation and resulted in thousands of bank and business failures. The Long Depression was a global phenomenon, affecting the UK, Germany, and other industrialising nations simultaneously. In the post-WWII era, the longest recession was the Great Recession of 2007-09 at 18 months.

What was the worst US recession since 1945?

By most metrics, the 2007-09 Great Recession was the worst post-WWII recession. It lasted 18 months (the longest post-WWII recession), saw GDP contract 4.3% peak-to-trough, unemployment reach 10.0%, and involved the worst financial crisis since 1929. The COVID recession of 2020 was sharper in its GDP contraction rate (annualised Q2 2020 was -31.4%) but lasted only 2 months, making comparisons complex.

How often do recessions happen?

The US has experienced 34 NBER-dated recessions between 1854 and 2020, an average of roughly one recession every 5 years. The frequency has declined in the post-WWII period: 11 recessions in 75 years (1945-2020), or roughly one every 6.8 years. The gap between the 2009 trough and the 2020 peak was 128 months (over 10 years) - the longest economic expansion in US history.

Is NBER's recession dating ever disputed?

NBER recession dates are widely accepted, but individual determinations occasionally attract academic debate. The 2020 recession dating attracted comment because NBER declared it with unusually speed - the peak announcement came just 4 months after the February 2020 peak, faster than any previous announcement. Some economists questioned whether 2001 warranted a recession declaration given the mild GDP contraction, though NBER's emphasis on the breadth of the employment decline justified the call.