The last official recession in the United States ended in April 2020 , after a brief downturn that began in February 2020 during the early phase of the COVID‑19 pandemic.

Quick scoop: when was the last recession?

  • The U.S. economy entered a recession in February 2020 , triggered by pandemic‑related shutdowns and collapsing demand.
  • The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), which dates U.S. business cycles, declared that the recession ended in April 2020 , making it the shortest on record at just two months.
  • Before that, the prior major recession was the Great Recession , which ran from December 2007 to June 2009.

Recent recession dates at a glance

Recession period| Duration| Notes
---|---|---
Feb 2020 – Apr 2020| 2 months| COVID‑19‑induced downturn; shortest U.S. recession ever. 510
Dec 2007 – Jun 2009| 18 months| “Great Recession”; deepest postwar downturn before COVID‑19. 179
Mar 2001 – Nov 2001| 8 months| Dot‑com‑bubble‑related slowdown. 5

Why people still talk about “a recession”

Even though the last official recession ended in 2020, many households still feel its aftereffects—higher debt, elevated housing costs, and uneven wage growth—which keeps “when was the last recession” a trending topic in forums and news discussions.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.