The 500™

The 500™—more formally known as the S&P 500^®—is recognized worldwide as one of the premier benchmarks for U.S. stock market performance. The 500 covers leading companies from leading industries and represents a broad cross-section of the U.S. equity market.

To build The 500, S&P Dow Jones Indices identifies important industries within the U.S. equity market, approximates the relative weight of these industries in terms of market capitalization, and then allocates a representative sample of stocks within each industry to the index.

Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, Procter & Gamble, and Visa are just a few of the largest and most widely known companies included in the S&P 500. But while many S&P 500 companies are household names, broad familiarity is not a requirement.

To be eligible for The 500, a company must:

• be a U.S. company
• market capitalization qualifies as "large-cap"
• sufficient liquidity
• sufficient public float
• financial viability/earnings
• contributes to sector balance

Complete details on eligibility criteria can be found in the index methodology.

The 500 currently represents approximately 83% of total U.S. market capitalization. This broad coverage enables it to closely track the performance of the entire U.S. equity market. Because the index is weighted by market capitalization (adjusted for investable shares, or “float”), the largest companies in the index account for a substantial portion of its total market capitalization, and these companies have the greatest influence on the index’s performance.

In 1923, Standard & Poor’s introduced an index that tracked 233 companies and covered 26 industries. The index was later reformulated as the Composite Stock Index, which tracked 90 stocks. The index finally evolved to become The 500, which debuted in its current format in 1957. The index is highly regarded as a proxy for the U.S. equity market and is the only stock market benchmark serving as an economic indicator in The Conference Board Leading Economic Index. It has stood for U.S. stock market performance in that context since 1968.

The 500 is widely licensed to serve as the basis for index-linked investment products, including index funds, ETFs, futures, options, and insurance products. In 2022, S&P DJI estimates that USD 11.4 trillion was indexed or benchmarked to The 500, with indexed (or passively managed) assets making up approximately USD 5.7 trillion of this total. For a list of ETFs based on The 500, visit our Index-Linked Products page.

Except where noted, all data as of June 30, 2022.
“The 500” is a trademark of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC, an affiliate of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC.