List of recessions in the United States

Name	Dates	Duration	Time since start of previous entry	Causes
Panic of 1797	1797–1800	3 years	–	The effects of the deflation of the Bank of England crossed the Atlantic Ocean to North America and disrupted commercial and real estate markets in the United States and the Caribbean. Britain's economy was greatly affected by developing disflationary repercussions because it was fighting France in the French Revolutionary Wars at the time.
Depression of 1807	1807–1814	7 years	10 years	The Embargo Act of 1807 was passed by the United States Congress under President Thomas Jefferson. It devastated shipping-related industries. The Federalists fought the embargo and allowed smuggling to take place in New England.
Panic of 1819	1819–1824	5 years	12 years	The first major financial crisis in the United States featured widespread foreclosures, bank failures, unemployment, and a slump in agriculture and manufacturing. It also marked the end of the economic expansion that followed the War of 1812.
Panic of 1837	1837–1843	6 years	18 years	A sharp downturn in the American economy was caused by bank failures and lack of confidence in the paper currency. Speculation markets were greatly affected when American banks stopped payment in specie (gold and silver coinage).
Panic of 1857	1857–1860	3 years	20 years	Failure of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company burst a European speculative bubble in United States railroads and caused a loss of confidence in American banks. Over 5,000 businesses failed within the first year of the Panic, and unemployment was accompanied by protest meetings in urban areas.
Panic of 1873	1873–1879	6 years	16 years	Economic problems in Europe prompted the failure of the Jay Cooke & Company, the largest bank in the United States, which burst the post-Civil War speculative bubble. The Coinage Act of 1873 also contributed by immediately depressing the price of silver, which hurt North American mining interests.
Long Depression	1873–1896	23 years	–	The collapse of the Vienna Stock Exchange caused a depression that spread throughout the world. It is important to note that during this period, the global industrial production greatly increased. In the United States, for example, industrial output increased fourfold.
Panic of 1893	1893–1896	3 years	20 years	Failure of the United States Reading Railroad and withdrawal of European investment led to a stock market and banking collapse. This Panic was also precipitated in part by a run on the gold supply.
Panic of 1907	1907–1908	1 year	14 years	A run on Knickerbocker Trust Company deposits on October 22, 1907, set events in motion that would lead to a severe monetary contraction.
Post-World War I recession	1918–1921	3 years	11 years	Severe hyperinflation in Europe took place over production in North America. It was a brief but very sharp recession and was caused by the end of wartime production, along with an influx of labor from returning troops. This in turn caused high unemployment.
Great Depression	1929–1933	43 months	21 months	Stock markets crashed worldwide, and a banking collapse took place in the United States. Although sometimes dated as lasting until the Second World War, the US economy was growing again by 1933, and technically the U.S. was not in recession from 1933 to 1937
Recession of 1937	1937–1938	13 months	50 months	The Recession of 1937 is only considered minor when compared to the Great Depression, but is otherwise among the worst recessions of the 20th century.
Recession of 1945	Feb-Oct 1945	8 months	80 months	The decline in government spending at the end of World War II led to an enormous drop in Gross Domestic Product making this technically a recession. The Post War years were unusual in a number of ways and this era has little in common with other recessions.
Recession of 1948	Nov 1948–Oct 1949	11 months	37 months	The 1948 recession was a relatively brief cyclical economic downturn, the mildness of which led to confidence in the notion that the Post War-era would be a period of stronger growth.
Recession of 1953	July 1953–May 1954	10 months	45 months	After a post-Korean War inflationary period, more funds were transferred into national security. The Federal Reserve changed monetary policy to be more restrictive in 1952 due to fears of further inflation.
Recession of 1958	Aug 1957–April 1958	8 months	39 months	Monetary policy was tightened during the two years preceding 1957, followed by an easing of policy at the end of 1957. The budget balance resulted in a change in budget surplus of 0.8% of GDP in 1957 to a budget deficit of 0.6% of GDP in 1958, and then to 2.6% of GDP in 1959.
Recession of 1960-1	April 1960–Feb 1961	10 months	24 months	After President Kennedy's 30 January 1961 call for increased government spending to improve the Gross National Product and to reduce unemployment, the 1960-61 recession ended in February.
Recession of 1969-70	Dec 1969–Nov 1970	11 months	106 months	The relatively mild 1969 recession is thought to have been mostly caused by the Federal Reserve raising interest rates to hold down inflation.
1973 oil crisis 1973–1974 stock market crash	Nov. 1973– March 1975	16 months	36 months	A quadrupling of oil prices by OPEC coupled with high government spending due to the Vietnam War led to stagflation in the United States.
1980 recession	Jan-July 1980	6 months	58 months	The NBER considers a short recession to have occurred in 1980, followed by a short period of growth and then a deep recession. Unemployment remained relatively elevated inbetween recessions. The early '80s are sometimes referred to as a "double dip" or "w-shaped" recession.
Early 1980s recession	July 1981–Nov 1982	16 months	12 months	The Iranian Revolution sharply increased the price of oil around the world in 1979, causing the 1979 energy crisis. This was caused by the new regime in power in Iran, which exported oil at inconsistent intervals and at a lower volume, forcing prices to go up. Tight monetary policy in the United States to control inflation led to another recession. The changes were made largely because of inflation that was carried over from the previous decade due to the 1973 oil crisis and the 1979 energy crisis.
Early 1990s recession	July 1990–March 1991	8 months	92 months	Industrial production and manufacturing-trade sales increased in early 1991.
Early 2000s recession	Mar-Nov 2001	8 months	120 months	The collapse of the dot-com bubble, the September 11th attacks, and accounting scandals contributed to a relatively mild contraction in the North American economy.
Late 2000s recession	Dec 2007-current	ongoing 73 months	73 months	The collapse of the housing market led to bank collapses in the US and Europe, causing the amount of available credit to be sharply curtailed, resulting in massive liquidity and solvency crises. In addition, high oil prices, stock markets crashed worldwide, and a banking collapse took place in the United States.

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