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Data last updated: Oct 31, 2026
Snapshot (as of Oct 31, 2026): Vanguard 500 Index Admiral (VFIAX) pays a $5.44 annual dividend ($1.36 quarterly), yielding 1.06% at $699.87/share. 5 consecutive years of dividend growth. Source: Yahoo Finance, aggregated by MerryDiv.
Dividend Yield: 1.06%
Annual Dividend: $5.44 per share
Dividend Frequency: quarterly
Years of Dividend History: 27
Vanguard 500 Index Admiral dividend reflects the aggregate payouts from all 500 large U.S. companies tracked by the S&P 500 index. The fund holds each constituent stock in proportion to its index weighting, so the dividend it pays rises and falls with what those underlying companies collectively distribute. VFIAX currently yields 1.05%, with a trailing annual dividend rate of $5.4370 per share paid quarterly. That low yield makes VFIAX most relevant to growth-and-income investors who prioritize dividend growth over immediate income, backed by a 14-year per-share dividend history running from $2.39 to $7.06.
Vanguard 500 Index Admiral dividend safety depends entirely on the aggregate distributions paid by the S&P 500's constituent companies, not on any single issuer's earnings or payout ratio. A traditional payout ratio is not applicable (fund/ETF), since VFIAX passes through what the underlying index holdings pay rather than managing its own earnings. The one data-supported pressure point is 2020, when the annual dividend slipped from $5.5808 to $5.3110, a decline of roughly 4.8%, reflecting cuts across the broader index during that period.
Vanguard 500 Index Admiral dividend history shows a CAGR of 8.0% per year from 2011 to 2025. Per-share dividends grew from $2.39 to $7.06 over that window (2026 data is a partial year and excluded from the growth calculation). The largest single-year jump was 19.5% in 2012, while 2021 posted the smallest increase in the available data, with the annual dividend rising just $0.0257 from $5.3110 to $5.4367, a gain of under 0.5%.
| Period | CAGR | From | To |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3-Year | +5.9% | $5.95 (2022) | $7.06 (2025) |
| 5-Year | +5.9% | $5.31 (2020) | $7.06 (2025) |
| 10-Year | +6.0% | $3.96 (2015) | $7.06 (2025) |
VFIAX fits growth-and-income investors who want dividend growth tied to the broad U.S. large-cap market rather than a high starting yield. The yield is low (below 2%), currently sitting at 1.05%, and no 5-year average yield is available for direct comparison. The trade-off is straightforward: the 8.0% annualized dividend growth rate from 2011 to 2025 is the draw, not the income generated today. An investor in VFIAX gets exposure to the collective dividend output of 500 large U.S. companies, but accepts a yield that delivers limited near-term income in exchange for that long-run growth rate.
| Payment Date | Amount per Share |
|---|---|
| 2026-09-28 | $1.8186 |
| 2026-06-26 | $1.9602 |
| 2026-03-27 | $1.8697 |
| 2025-12-22 | $1.7696 |
| 2025-09-29 | $1.7381 |
| 2025-06-30 | $1.7444 |
| 2025-03-27 | $1.8116 |
| 2024-12-23 | $1.7392 |
| 2024-09-27 | $1.6385 |
| 2024-06-28 | $1.7842 |
| Year | Total Dividends |
|---|---|
| 2026 | $5.6485 |
| 2025 | $7.0637 |
| 2024 | $6.7049 |
| 2023 | $6.3670 |
| 2022 | $5.9527 |
Project income from VFIAX with the VFIAX dividend calculator or track your full portfolio with the dividend tracker.