Median waits between dividend dates (trailing 12 months, all recurring US dividends)

Name: Median waits between dividend dates (trailing 12 months, all recurring US dividends)
Creator: Strasmore
Published: 2026-08-22
License: https://www.strasmore.com/terms/

Answered against 22 years of US equities and 12 years of US options data and published with the query that produced it. This result is stored as of 2026-08-22, from What Is an Ex-Dividend Date? How It Works.

as of 2026-08-22 scalar 1×4read in context →

dividends

44,904

median declared to ex days

median ex to pay days

avg ex to pay days

8.6

Rows × columns: 1 × 4
Computed: 2026-08-22
Completeness: No missing values
Source: US exchange, SIP and OPRA market data
Licence: Strasmore terms · free, no signup
Formats: JSON · CSV · the SQL below

What each column holds

Column definitions for Median waits between dividend dates (trailing 12 months, all recurring US dividends), derived from the stored result.
Column	Type	Range
`dividends`	number	every row is 44,904
`median_declared_to_ex_days`	number	every row is 32
`median_ex_to_pay_days`	number	every row is 5
`avg_ex_to_pay_days`	number	every row is 8.6

Computed from Strasmore's warehouse of US exchange, SIP and OPRA market data. Equity prices are delayed; options greeks and implied volatility are end-of-day. This result is stored, not recomputed on load — it is exactly the numbers that were returned on 2026-08-22, and the query below is what returned them.

the exact SQL behind every number

SELECT count() AS dividends,
       round(quantile(0.5)(dateDiff('day', declaration_date, ex_dividend_date)), 0) AS median_declared_to_ex_days,
       round(quantile(0.5)(dateDiff('day', ex_dividend_date, pay_date)), 0) AS median_ex_to_pay_days,
       round(avg(dateDiff('day', ex_dividend_date, pay_date)), 1) AS avg_ex_to_pay_days
FROM global_markets.stocks_dividends
WHERE currency = 'USD'
  AND distribution_type = 'recurring'
  AND ex_dividend_date >= today() - INTERVAL 12 MONTH
  AND ex_dividend_date <= today()
  AND declaration_date IS NOT NULL
  AND pay_date IS NOT NULL
  AND pay_date >= ex_dividend_date

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