The Best Growth ETFs to Buy in America (2024)

The best growth exchange traded funds (ETFs) provide you with diversified portfolios of companies that are growing at above-average rates. These ETFs own stocks that deliver rapidly increasing sales, cash flows and share prices. Growth investing is a strategy that aims to buy the stocks of companies that are growing their revenues or cash flows faster than the rest of the market. Growth companies reinvest their profits to expand their businesses more rapidly. There’s no guarantee that a growth company will drive greater profitability over the longer term.

Growth ETFs track an underlying index that identifies growth companies based on a number of factors. Depending on the index, these factors may include growth in earnings, sales and price. Some ETFs also consider value metrics to either find deep growth companies or to find growth companies at a reasonable price. The ETFs included in our list take different approaches to growth investing. The result is a list of funds with P/E ratios that may be above average. Some funds have heavy concentrations in the top three to five companies, while others do not.

What is a Growth ETF?

Growth portfolios invest in big U.S. companies that are projected to grow faster than other large-cap stocks. Stocks in the top 70% of the capitalization of the U.S. equity market are defined as large-cap. Growth is determined based on fast growth (high growth rates for earnings, sales, book value, and cash flow) and high valuations (high price ratios and low dividend yields). Most of these portfolios focus on companies in rapidly expanding industries.

What is the Best Growth ETF?

1. VONG: Vanguard Russell 1000 Growth Index Fund
2. VUG: Vanguard Growth Index Fund
3. QGRO: American Century U.S. Quality Growth ETF
4. IWY: iShares Russell Top 200 Growth ETF
5. MGK: Vanguard Mega Cap Growth Index Fund
6. SCHG: Schwab U.S. Large-Cap Growth ETF
7. IWF: iShares Russell 1000 Growth ETF
8. SPYG: SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 Growth ETF
9. VOOG: Vanguard S&P 500 Growth Index Fund
10. IVW: iShares S&P 500 Growth ETF

10. iShares S&P 500 Growth ETF

The iShares S&P 500 Growth ETF (IWY) seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of large-capitalization U.S. equities that exhibit growth characteristics.

• Exposure to large U.S. companies whose earnings are expected to grow at an above-average rate relative to the market
• Low cost and tax efficient
• Use as a complement to a portfolio’s core holdings

9. Vanguard S&P 500 Growth Index Fund

VOOG invests in stocks in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Growth Index, composed of the growth companies in the S&P 500.

• Focuses on closely tracking the index’s return, which is considered a gauge of overall U.S. growth stock returns.
• Offers high potential for investment growth; share value rises and falls more sharply than that of funds holding bonds.
• More appropriate for long-term goals where your money’s growth is essential.

8. SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 Growth ETF

The S&P 500 Growth Index (SPYG) measures the performance of the large-capitalization growth segment of the U.S. equity market. The Index consists of those stocks in the S&P 500 Index exhibiting the strongest growth characteristics based on: (i) sales growth; (ii) earnings change to price; and (iii) momentum. The Index is float-adjusted market capitalization weighted.

7. iShares Russell 1000 Growth ETF

The iShares Russell 1000 Growth ETF (IWF) seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of large- and mid-capitalization U.S. equities that exhibit growth characteristics.

• Exposure to U.S. companies whose earnings are expected to grow at an above-average rate relative to the market
• Targeted access to a specific category of domestic stocks
• Use to tilt your portfolio towards growth stocks

6. Schwab U.S. Large-Cap Growth ETF

SCHG seeks to track as closely as possible, before fees and expenses, the total return of the Dow Jones U.S. Large-Cap Growth Total Stock Market Index.

• A straightforward, low-cost fund offering potential tax-efficiency
• The Fund can serve as part of the core of a diversified portfolio 
• Simple access to large-cap U.S. equities that exhibit growth style characteristics
• Stocks are classified as growth based on a number of factors

5. Vanguard Mega Cap Growth Index Fund

Mega Cap Growth Index Fund (MGK) seeks to track the performance of a benchmark index that measures the investment return of the largest-capitalization growth stocks in the United States.

4. iShares Russell Top 200 Growth ETF

The iShares Russell Top 200 Growth ETF (IWY) seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of large-capitalization U.S. equities that exhibit growth characteristics.

• Exposure to large U.S. companies whose earnings are expected to grow at an above-average rate relative to the market
• Targeted access to a specific category of large-cap domestic stocks
• Use to tilt your portfolio towards growth stocks

3. American Century U.S. Quality Growth ETF

QGRO seeks to capture the performance of large- and mid-capitalization companies in the U.S. that possess attractive quality, growth and valuation fundamentals. Pursues more consistent exposure to U.S. Growth companies versus market-cap-weighted indexes by emphasizing stable growers as well as high-quality, high-growth companies.

2. Vanguard Growth Index Fund

VUG seeks to track the performance of the CRSP US Large Cap Growth Index.

• Provides a convenient way to match the performance of many of the nation’s largest growth stocks.
• Follows a passively managed, full-replication approach.

1. Vanguard Russell 1000 Growth Index Fund

VONG seeks to track the performance of the Russell 1000 Growth Index.

• Large-cap growth equity.
• Employs a passively managed, full-replication strategy.
• The fund remains fully invested.
• Low expenses minimize net tracking error.