HOuch How long does it typically take for stocks to get well from a bear market?
I do not just mean how long it takes for a bear market to finish. The Bears may officially be over in a number of months.
But how long will it take for us to recoup our losses? To get back into the black? Real and adjusted for inflation.
Unfortunately, this can be a for much longer slog…
Investment Returns sidebar. – All returns shown are inflation-adjusted total returns (including dividends). Fees are usually not included. The “Bear Recovery” column shows you when the stock market has completely recovered its losses in real terms. Total duration measures the period from the beginning of the bear market to the recovery.
World Equities: Bear Market Recovery Periods 1970-2025 (GBP Returns)
| Bear start | Bear trough | Wear real recovery | Traps (%) | Total duration |
| December 1969 | June 1970 | June 1972 | -22 | 2 years, 5 months |
| December 1972 | September 1974 | December 1984 | -52 | 12 years |
| September 1976 | April 1980 | March 1983 | -39 | 6 years, 6 months |
| August 1987 | November 1987 | July 1989 | -30 | 1 yr, 11 months |
| December 1989 | September 1990 | August 1993 | -39 | 3 years, 8 months |
| August 2000 | January 2003 | May 2014 | -51 | 13 years, 9 months |
| Oct. 2007 | February 2009 | February 2013 | -36 | 5 years, 3 months |
Data from MSCI. November 2025. Note: MSCI World monthly returns start in 1970. The December 1969 bear market actually began before that – see the UK and US bear market recovery tables below.
In summary:
- Average Bear Market Loss: -38%
- Average bear market recovery Time: 6 years, 6 months
- Shortest bear: 1 yr, 11 months
- Longest bear: 13 years, 9 months
The real return numbers I share listed below are much worse than what you’ll be able to see from sources Ignore inflation.
Unfortunately, as we now have only recently seen, the associated fee of living is real.
Inflation-adjusted returns are those that put food on the table. So let’s not obscure reality with nominal numbers.
That being said, I proceed to be shocked on the potential depth and severity of really big bear markets.
If you were not invested through the global financial crisis, you have not experienced even the typical bear market shock.
God knows how terrible lots of us would feel if the market fell 50%.
So far this has happened to me twice in my life. But fortunately not my investment life.
Smarter than the typical bear
Many people appear to imagine that they’ll at all times ride out a bear market since the market will get well in a number of years.
As the table shows, this might prove to be a serious miscalculation as you glide toward retirement with a portfolio filled with stocks like a jumbo jet with an excessive amount of fuel.
Remember that the recovery periods above will only take you back to where you began.
It’s also price reflecting on the proven fact that, as I said, we have had an exceptionally benign, bear-free period for the reason that global financial crisis.
Long may this proceed, right?
(Gulp! If you suddenly feel the will to dig deeper, I recently revised our article on defensive asset allocation.)
UK Stocks: Bear Market Recovery Periods 1900-2025 (GBP Returns)
Okay, we will not access global stock data before 1970. So for a longer-term perspective, let’s turn to the record of bear attacks within the UK and US:
| Bear start | Bear trough | Wear real recovery | Traps (%) | Total duration |
| June 1914 | December 1920 | February 1923 | -52 | 8 years, 8 months |
| January 1929 | June 1932 | February 1934 | -37 | 5 years, 1 month |
| January 1937 | July 1940 | March 1945 | -40 | 8 years, 2 months |
| June 1951 | June 1952 | November 1953 | -28 | 2 years, 5 months |
| June 1957 | February 1958 | August 1958 | -21 | 1 yr, 2 months |
| April 1961 | June 1962 | August 1963 | -25 | 2 years, 3 months |
| January 1969 | May 1970 | January 1972 | -35 | 3 years |
| April 1972 | December 1974 | January 1984 | -75 | 11 years, 9 months |
| January 1976 | Oct. 1976 | August 1977 | -32 | 1 yr, 7 months |
| September 1987 | November 1987 | April 1992 | -34 | 4 years, 7 months |
| August 2000 | January 2003 | February 2006 | -45 | 5 years, 6 months |
| Oct. 2007 | February 2009 | March 2013 | -43 | 5 years, 5 months |
| December 2019 | March 2020 | August 2021 | -25 | 1 yr, 8 months |
Data from (Campbell G, Grossman R, Turner JD, (2021), European Review of Economic History. 25. 10.1093/ereh/heab003.), and FTSE Russell. November 2025.
Some highlights:
- Average Bear Market Loss: -38%
- Average Bear market recovery Time: 4 years, 9 months
- Shortest bear: 1 yr, 2 months
- Longest bear: 11 years, 9 months
Surprisingly, the memory of the era marked by world wars and the Great Depression makes the recovery statistics of the British bear market look no worse than the world index.
Yet what at all times stands out to me is the UK’s 75% decline in 1972-1974.
When I believe of that point, I also do not forget that we went through periods of social discontent that make today’s disharmony appear to be a grade school nativity play.
Bear country
In some ways, these tables downplay the potential threats to our portfolios.
For one thing, our tables don’t take note of the markets which might be near a bear market: losses of 15% or more that characterize the periods between bear markets.
Sub-bearish shocks can still be enough to rattle someone whose portfolio has galloped during good times. A number of years of wonderful gains can quickly take us from a state of getting little to lose to suddenly having rather a lot at stake.
In this example, we could have unknowingly turn into less risk tolerant than we thought.
Second, sometimes there are only a number of months between a bear market recovery and the subsequent downturn.
For example, there is simply a three-month gap between the recovery in January 1972 and the market disruption in April 1972. Therefore, I personally view this era as a protracted, 15-year bear market. (Perhaps fees can be included.)
Likewise, the dot-com bust of 2000 and the worldwide financial crisis actually represent a lost decade for British investors.
Finally, I would love to say that the UK stock market has performed quite well prior to now.
Still, it’s plausible to assume a worse parallel universe by which all stocks were destroyed by a Bearzilla catastrophe on the size of the Japanese stock market crash.
By the best way, the bear market (on this planet stock table) from December 1989 to September 1990 was largely as a consequence of the bursting of the Japanese asset bubble.
US Stocks: Bear Market Recovery Times 1900-2025 (USD Returns)
For the sake of completeness, here is the recovery record of the world’s most successful stock market after the bear market:
| Bear start | Bear trough | Wear real recovery | Traps (%) | Total duration |
| June 1901 | Oct. 1903 | December 1904 | -25 | 3 years, 6 months |
| January 1906 | November 1907 | January 1909 | -35 | 3 years |
| June 1911 | December 1914 | Oct. 1915 | -20 | 4 years, 4 months |
| November 1916 | December 1920 | August 1924 | -47 | 7 years, 9 months |
| September 1929 | June 1932 | November 1936 | -77 | 7 years, 2 months |
| February 1937 | April 1942 | April 1945 | -48 | 8 years, 2 months |
| Oct. 1939 | April 1942 | June 1944 | -38 | 4 years, 7 months |
| April 1946 | February 1948 | Oct. 1950 | -35 | 4 years, 6 months |
| December 1961 | June 1962 | May 1963 | -22 | 1 yr, 5 months |
| December 1968 | June 1970 | November 1972 | -32 | 3 years, 10 months |
| January 1973 | September 1974 | January 1985 | -49 | 12 years |
| November 1980 | July 1982 | December 1982 | -23 | 2 years, 1 month |
| August 1987 | December 1987 | August 1989 | -27 | 2 years |
| August 2000 | February 2003 | May 2013 | -45 | 12 years, 9 months |
| Oct. 2007 | March 2009 | March 2013 | -50 | 5 years, 5 months |
| November 2021 | Oct. 2022 | March 2024 | -25 | 2 years, 4 months |
Data from Robert Shiller. October 2025.
- Average Bear Market Loss: -37%
- Average Bear market recovery Time: 5 years, 4 months
- Shortest bear: 1 yr, 5 months
- Longest bear: 12 years, 9 months
Again, the troubled period from the Great Depression to World War II may very well be described as an enormous bear, lasting from September 1929 to April 1945.
That would have taken you over 15 years to interrupt even. And then you definately got a full 12 months off before the 35% drop began in April 1946.
What a time to be alive.
So essentially, US stocks have suffered three lost many years in 125 years.
Yes, the USA – the country of the everlasting bulls!
This may look like scaremongering. But if an investment life spans 50 to 60 years (accumulation and decumulation periods combined), then lots of us are more likely to see the sharp end of at the very least one such stagnation period.
Invest in the true world
So far we now have considered raw market data. But in point of fact, the associated fee of investing further prolongs the bear market recovery time.
On the positive side, we are able to improve our results by averaging the associated fee of the pound through the downturn and diversifying into defensive assets – comparable to government bonds – early on.
The chart below shows how a bigger allocation to high-quality government bonds in comparison with an all-stock portfolio accelerated the recovery from the coronavirus crash:
The All-Weather Portfolio is one other asset allocation approach that may dramatically reduce costs Heaviness of a bear market.
Yes, you will probably pay for this cushioning in the shape of lower long-term returns. (Although that isn’t a certainty).
But experiencing shallower faints makes it easier to remain the course. And it’s much harder to return back from a bear market when you panic after a deep dip, take your losses, after which miss the rebound.
So take the proper measures early to guard your portfolio. Once a bear market gets uncontrolled, it will likely be too late.
Be calm,
