Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
SPY vs URTH: Differences, Returns & Fees
Over the year to Oct 28, 2026, SPY returned +13.6% to URTH's +13.1%; 71% of their weight is in the same names.
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Net assets: $814.8bn on Oct 27, 2026 for SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, and $8.9bn on Oct 28, 2026 for iShares MSCI World ETF.
Pair scorecard
SPY costs 0.15 points a year less; their one-year returns differ by 0.5 points; SPY is far larger, $814.8bn against $8.8bn.
| Measure | SPY | URTH |
|---|---|---|
| Return | ||
| Total return, 1 year | +13.6% | +13.1% |
| Benchmark | ||
| What it tracks | S&P 500 Index | MSCI World Index |
| Cost and size | ||
| Expense ratio | 0.09% | 0.24% |
| Net assets, as of Oct 27, 2026 | $814.8bn | $8.8bn |
| Holdings | ||
| Holdings in common | 71% | |
| Top ten holdings, share of the fund | 38.1% | 27.2% |
Holdings in common uses holdings dated Oct 27, 2026. Method
Risk and return
Jan 20, 2012 to Oct 23, 2026 · 770 weekly returnsEach against its own benchmark: SPY against VOO, Sep 17, 2010 to Oct 23, 2026; URTH against ACWI, Jan 20, 2012 to Oct 23, 2026.
SPY returned more: +643.8% to +421.6%. SPY and URTH swung about the same: 15.6% and 15.6%. SPY fell slightly less at its worst: −31.8% to −32.7%.
Full scorecard
19 measures, with how each is measured Open ↓
| Measure | SPY | URTH | Edge | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Return | ||||
| Total return | +643.8% | +421.6% | SPY | Price change plus distributions, reinvested. |
| Annualized | +14.5% | +11.8% | SPY | Total return as a yearly rate. |
| Price return | +476.0% | +296.2% | SPY | Price change alone, distributions left out. |
| Risk | ||||
| Volatility | 15.6% | 15.6% | Tie | Spread of weekly returns, annualized. Lower is steadier. |
| Downside deviation | 10.7% | 10.9% | Tie | Like volatility, counting only weeks below the Treasury bill rate. |
| Max drawdown | −31.8% | −32.7% | SPY (slight) | Deepest fall from a high to the low after it. |
| Upside capture | 99.8% | 96.3% | Share of its benchmark's rise caught in the weeks it rose. | |
| Downside capture | 100.0% | 96.5% | Share of its benchmark's fall taken in the weeks it fell. Lower is better. | |
| Beta | 1.00 | 0.98 | Not an edge | How far it moves for each 1% its benchmark moves. |
| R squared | 1.00 | 0.92 | Not an edge | Share of its weekly moves its benchmark explains. |
| Risk-adjusted | ||||
| Sharpe | 0.84 | 0.68 | SPY | Return above Treasury bills per unit of volatility. |
| Sortino | 1.22 | 0.97 | SPY | Return above Treasury bills per unit of downside deviation. |
| Treynor | 0.133 | 0.109 | Return above Treasury bills per unit of beta. | |
| Calmar | 0.46 | 0.36 | SPY | Annualized return divided by the max drawdown. |
| Against the benchmark | ||||
| Benchmark | VOO | ACWI | The ETF each fund is measured against. | |
| Alpha | −0.1% a year | +0.9% a year | Not significant | Yearly return beyond what its beta to the benchmark predicts. |
| Alpha t-stat | −0.51 | 0.79 | Not an edge | How sure the alpha is. Below 2, it could be chance. |
| Alpha range | −0.3% to +0.1% | −1.4% to +3.2% | Includes zero | The 95% range for the yearly alpha. |
| Information ratio | −0.15 | 0.16 | Return against its benchmark per unit of tracking error. | |
| Tracking error | 0.4% | 4.5% | Not an edge | How far weekly returns stray from the benchmark, annualized. |
Computed by ETFIQ from Tiingo daily prices and ETFIQ's distribution records, 770 weekly returns. Cash rate: the 13-week Treasury bill.
What they share
By the books each fund has filed, SPY and URTH hold 71% of their money in the same securities at the same weight. Holdings dated Oct 27, 2026.
half
71% in common
Only in one fund ↓
Side by side
SPY and URTH on the fields both publish, as of Oct 28, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
SPY and URTH do different jobs. What does each one do in a portfolio?
- What each follows. SPY follows S&P 500 Index and URTH follows MSCI World Index.
- Cost. SPY charges 0.09% of assets a year and URTH 0.24%, a gap of 0.15 points.
- Size. SPY has $814.8bn in net assets and URTH $8.8bn (net assets, as of Oct 27, 2026); SPY is 92.6 times larger.
Data as of Oct 28, 2026.
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SPY
SPY tracks the S&P 500. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned +13.6% with distributions reinvested, against +13.7% for its benchmark, the S&P 500 Index. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.09% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer for Oct 27, 2026, 100% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 504 positions, with the top ten at 38.1%.
URTH
URTH tracks the MSCI World. Over the year to Oct 28, 2026 it returned +13.1% with distributions reinvested, against +13.4% for its benchmark, the MSCI All Country World Index. The prospectus expense ratio is 0.24% a year. By its holdings published by its issuer for Oct 27, 2026, 69% of the fund by weight is stocks the S&P 500 also holds, across 1,254 positions, with the top ten at 27.2%.
Questions people ask
- Which returned more over the last year, SPY or URTH?
- In the year to Oct 28, 2026, with distributions reinvested, SPY returned +13.6% and URTH +13.1%.
- Which is cheaper, SPY or URTH?
- SPY is cheaper, by 0.15 percentage points a year. That is about $15 on $10,000 held for a year. Fees come from each fund's prospectus.
Links are sources, not endorsements. A comparison is not a recommendation.
How this is computed
Overlap adds up the smaller of the two weights for each security both funds hold.
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ETFIQ, SPY against URTH, data as of Oct 28, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/any/spy-vs-urth
ETFIQ. (Oct 28, 2026). SPY against URTH. Retrieved from https://etfiq.com/compare/any/spy-vs-urth
[SPY against URTH (ETFIQ, Oct 28, 2026)](https://etfiq.com/compare/any/spy-vs-urth)
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