REIT Statistics (2026)

Real estate investment trusts let anyone own income-producing property through the stock market. US listed REITs had an equity market cap of about $1.456 trillion (the FTSE Nareit All Equity REITs Index) to $1.515 trillion (the broader All REITs index) on September 30, 2026, and collectively own more than $4.5 trillion of gross real estate across roughly 560,000 properties (see the table below).

The listed universe is not huge in company count: there were 180 REITs in the All REITs index and 146 REITs trading on the NYSE at the end of September 2026, with more than 28 REITs in the S&P 500. Trading is liquid, with average daily dollar volume of $12.3 billion in September 2026, up from $7.4 billion in September 2016, and REITs raised $65.7 billion across 101 offerings in 2026 through September (Nareit Fact Sheet).

A REIT owns or finances real estate and, in exchange for special tax treatment, must pay out at least 90% of its taxable income to shareholders as dividends each year (IRS Form 1120-REIT). That distribution requirement is why REITs are prized for income and why so much of their return arrives as cash dividends rather than price appreciation.

REITs come in two broad flavors. Equity REITs own physical property and collect rent, and they dominate the market at about $1.46 trillion. Mortgage REITs instead lend against real estate and earn interest, a much smaller (about $53 billion in September 2026) and higher-yielding slice. This page focuses mainly on equity REITs, the core of the industry.

REITs are no longer mostly office and mall landlords. As of September 30, 2026, health care was the largest sector at about $293 billion, followed by retail ($225 billion), data centers ($198 billion), industrial/logistics ($181 billion), and residential ($156 billion), with telecom towers adding another $122 billion (see the chart and table below).

Two shifts stand out. Data centers jumped from about $128 billion at the end of 2025 to $198 billion, after a 28.0% total return in 2026 through September, overtaking industrial and residential. And traditional office has become small: at about $41 billion it is only around 3% of the equity REIT market, smaller than self storage or lodging. Non-office property types now make up the large majority of REIT market cap.

The industry is top-heavy. Welltower, a health care REIT, was the largest at about $169.9 billion as of October 2026, followed by industrial giant Prologis ($123.6 billion) and data-center operator Equinix ($98.1 billion) (see the table below).

Nine of the ten largest real estate companies in the US are REITs, spanning towers (American Tower), malls (Simon Property Group), net-lease retail (Realty Income), storage (Public Storage), and data centers (Digital Realty). The concentration means a handful of specialized names drive much of the sector's overall performance.

Income is the REIT calling card. The FTSE Nareit All Equity REITs Index yielded 3.93% at the end of September 2026, up from 3.66% in June and close to the 4.07% it finished 2025 at, versus 1.02% for the S&P 500, so REITs yielded nearly four times the broad market (see the table below). The All REITs index, which blends in mortgage names, yielded 4.35%.

Mortgage REITs sit at the high end because they are leveraged lenders: the FTSE Nareit Mortgage REITs Index yielded 15.68% at the end of September 2026, up from 12.24% at the end of 2025 as its price fell 20.4% year to date. Those double-digit yields carry more interest-rate and credit risk, which is why equity REITs, at a more modest 3.7-4.1%, are the mainstream income choice.

The 90% payout rule turns into real cash. REITs distributed an estimated $112.5 billion in dividends to shareholders in 2024, and Nareit estimates roughly half of REITs' total return over time has come from dividends, compared with less than a quarter for the S&P 500 (Nareit).

In 2025, listed REITs paid about $71 billion and public non-listed REITs another $5 billion or so. That steady income is a big part of why REITs behave differently from growth stocks: more of the payoff shows up as a check rather than a rising share price.

REIT returns are volatile year to year. The FTSE Nareit All Equity REITs Index surged 28.7% in 2019 and 41.3% in 2021, but fell 24.9% in 2022 as interest rates spiked, then eked out 11.4% in 2023, 4.9% in 2024, and just 2.3% in 2025. In 2026 it rose 10.7% in the second quarter, gave back 6.1% in the third, and stood up 7.9% year to date at the end of September (see the chart and table below).

That swing from a 41% gain to a 25% loss inside two years shows how sensitive REITs are to interest rates: higher rates raise borrowing costs and make bond yields more competitive with REIT dividends. Patient investors have been rewarded for riding out the volatility, as the long-run numbers show.

2025 was a narrow, uneven year. The All Equity REITs Index returned only 2.3% for the full year and actually fell 2.1% in December, while mortgage REITs did far better at 16.0%, led by home-financing names up 26.4% (see the chart above).

Sector dispersion was wide. Health care led equity REITs at 28.5%, with industrial (17.0%) and diversified (15.5%) also strong, while several rate-sensitive and office-linked corners posted negative full-year returns. The headline 2.3% masked a market where sector selection mattered far more than the average.

Over long horizons REITs have quietly beaten stocks. For periods ending September 30, 2026, REITs returned 8.94% a year over 25 years versus 8.31% for the S&P 500, and 11.63% a year over 50 years versus 8.95% (see the table below) (Nareit Fact Sheet).

The recent picture is reversed: the S&P 500, powered by megacap technology, beat REITs over every window of 20 years or less, including 15.33% versus 5.35% a year over 10 years and 15.74% versus 5.61% over the past year. Nareit's own research points out there has been no 32-year stretch in which the Russell 3000 outpaced the All Equity REITs Index, a reminder that the REIT case is a long-term one.

A common myth is that REITs are riskier than stocks. Over long holding periods the opposite has often held: Nareit data show REIT return volatility running below broad equities over 10- and 20-year windows, partly because a large, steady dividend cushions total return.

Because REIT cash flows are tied to rents and property values rather than the broad economy, REITs have historically added diversification to a stock-and-bond portfolio. That combination of competitive long-run return, high income, and low correlation is the textbook argument for a REIT allocation.

REIT ownership is remarkably broad. About 170 million Americans, close to half the country, live in households that own REITs, typically through 401(k) plans, IRAs, mutual funds, and ETFs rather than by buying individual REIT shares (Nareit).

Nareit puts the figure at roughly 66.1 million US households, about half of all households. That penetration is a direct result of REITs being included in almost every diversified index fund and target-date retirement fund, so most people own REITs without ever deciding to.

Big money uses REITs too. About 64% of the 25 largest US and global institutional investors held REITs, and among defined benefit pension plans the share with REIT allocations rose from 39% in January 2020 to 51% in January 2025 (Nareit).

Usage skews toward the largest, most sophisticated plans: more than 70% of US pensions by assets incorporate REITs into their real estate strategies, and more than 75% of plans with over $25 billion in assets use them. Institutions treat listed REITs as a liquid, transparent way to hold real estate.

Not every REIT trades on an exchange. Alongside listed REITs are public non-listed and private REITs, which own real estate but do not trade daily; public non-listed REITs paid roughly $5 billion in dividends in 2025, a fraction of the listed market's payout. Listed REITs offer the liquidity and pricing that non-listed vehicles lack.

The model has also gone global. More than 40 countries and regions now have REIT regimes, with about 1,021 listed REITs worldwide and a combined equity market cap of more than $2 trillion. Nearly 5 billion people live in countries that have enacted REIT legislation, though the US remains the largest single market.

REITs are the simplest way for an ordinary investor to own commercial real estate: a single share buys a slice of warehouses, apartments, data centers, or cell towers, with a dividend yield that has recently run three to four times the S&P 500. For income-focused or diversification-minded investors, a modest REIT allocation can complement a stock-and-bond core.

The tradeoffs are real. REITs are sensitive to interest rates (hence the 25% drop in 2022), dividends are taxed as ordinary income unless held in a retirement account, and sector choice matters enormously, as 2025's spread from +28% health care to negative office returns showed. Most investors get broad REIT exposure most cheaply through a low-cost REIT index fund or ETF rather than picking individual names.