Total return
Price change plus dividends.
Total return combines the change in an investment's price with the income it paid, such as dividends, assuming that income is reinvested.
Why it is the honest number
Looking at price alone understates what investors actually earned. For a dividend-paying index, the gap between price return and total return adds up to a large difference over decades.
ExampleIf a fund's price rises 5% in a year and it pays a 2% dividend, its total return is roughly 7%.