It is the length of time, recession is months and depression like in 1930’s is years or a decade long.

A recession is considered two consecutive quarters of negative GDP.

A depression is a severe and prolonged downturn in economic activity. In economics, a depression is commonly defined as an extreme recession that lasts three or more years or leads to a decline in real gross domestic product (GDP) of at least 10 percent.

A recession may seem by definition short lived (six months) but the recovery can be slow and difficult. Recovery is any quarter with positive GDP, even if very small.The recovery from the ‘07 – ‘08 recession took albout 6 years for things to be considered “recovered.”

The internet is a mess when it comes to who came up with this quote.

I think zen covered the technical definitions.

But this works too. “It’s a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose yours.”