Gold year by year — every annual return since 1971
Annual return of gold in US dollars for every calendar year since 1971, colour-coded for winning and losing years.
56 years of gold — year by year
Each tile is one calendar year, measured from the last price of the previous year to the last of the year. The long view shows both: the explosion of the seventies and a decade without progress through the eighties and nineties.
Annual returns of the London reference price in US dollars, 1970–2025, calculated from our own price data. Best year 1979 at 127 %, weakest 1981 at -33 %. Figures in per cent, tiles labelled with the year. Calculated in dollars because only that series goes back this far — in GBP individual years would look different because of the exchange rate. Past performance is no indication of future development.
Where the numbers come from
This chart is calculated from our own price recordings. It is recalculated twice a day — after the daily close and after the London reference price at 16:30.
- our own measurement Our own daily closing prices for the metals — new values every trading day
The Chart view shows the most recently calculated state. The Image version — including the one for sharing and downloading — is a still image generated nightly at 02:30. Last generated on 09/11/2026 at 03:00.
Using this chart
You may embed and pass it on freely — in articles, presentations and on social media — as long as PreciousMetalPrices.com is named as the source and linked to this page. The share button at the top right provides the version with logo and QR code; the switch beside it toggles between the interactive chart and the image.
