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Multiyear Download of US Government Spending 1950-2013

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Use the controls below to CUSTOMIZE chart or CHANGE the data series

Hover mouse over dropdown controls for help. Remember, you can display a maximum of five data series at once.

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Spending Units: By default, government spending is displayed in billions of dollars. But using a dropdown control in the table heading you can select billions of 2017 dollars, percent of GDP, 2017 dollars per capita, percent of federal spending, or percent of total spending.
Chart Title: You can create a title for your chart. Use the text field to enter a title and click the button to the right of the text field.
US or State: By default, the chart shows overall United States government spending. But you can select spending for individual states by selecting the state dropdown control in the table heading.
State, Local: By default, you can chart state spending or local spending by clicking a radio button in the selection table. But you can chart state-and-local combined by selecting state n local in the state/local dropdown control in the table heading.
View: There are many ways to view the spending data. The default view is functional. There is a census view that conforms with the spending categories used by the US Census Bureau in its Statistical Abstract. There is a COFOG view that categorizes spending using the UN methodology.
US Budget Year: By default, the chart displays budgeted and estimated federal spending in the current US Budget submitted to the Congress by the president. But you can look at previous budgeted numbers using this dropdown control.
Mandatory: By default the chart shows all spending without regard to mandatory or discretionary. Select Mandatory if you want to chart only federal Mandatory spending, Discretionary if you want to chart only federal Discretionary spending, Both if you want both federal Mandatory and Discretionary spending broken out using the dropdown control in the table heading.

Data Range

Start Year: You can select any start year you want using the dropdown control in the table heading. At the top and bottom of the dropdown only years ending in “0” are shown. Select a start year to get close, then select the start year you want.
End Year: You can select any end year you want using the dropdown control in the table heading. At the top and bottom of the dropdown only years ending in “0” are shown. Select an end year to get close, then select the end year you want.
Category (max 5)Sub-categoryFed Gov. 
Xfer 
State Local Total   
 
Data Series: Select a spending series you want to chart from a dropdown on the left. If you select on the bottom dropdown you will add a data series (up to a maximum of five). The right-hand dropdown allows you to replace a data series with a more narrowly focused series. Click the “X” link to remove a data series from the chart.
? Total Spending: Federal: total outlays including grants to state and local. State and local: direct spending on programs
  ? Select data series to add to chart
 All Categories

If you’d like to create your own custom download of spending data you should use the table above to make your selections.

  • Select the year range: Select the start year and the end year you want by selecting the years you want in the two year dropdown boxes.
  • Select spending items: Just select the spending item you want from the dropdown control. If you select from the < select > you will add another data series to your chart. Up to 14 data series are allowed at once. Click the “X”; link to remove a data series from the chart.
  • Select units: You can select the display in billions of nominal (i.e. inflated) dollars, billions of real (i.e. year 2000) dollars, or as percent of GDP.

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Download Data File

Download Tab-delimited Data

Copy and Paste: To copy and paste data into spreadsheet for analysis, just copy the tab-delimited text in the textbox below (click cursor in text box, then press ctrl-A then press ctrl-C) and paste it into your spreadsheet.

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Below is a formatted version of the data.

Government Spending Chart
Fiscal Years 1950 to 2013
YearInflationGDP-US
$ billion nominal
Population-US
million
Total Spending - State
$ billion nominal
19501.33299.8a151.32610.86a
19517.66346.9a153.91710.83i
19521.8367.3a156.55210.79a
19531.52391.2a159.23211.47a
19540.72391a161.95813.01a
19552.01430.2a164.73114.37a
19563.93451.2a167.55115.15a
19573.2479.5a170.42016.80a
19582.04485.8a173.33719.99a
19591.34525a176.30522.44a
19601.44545.6a179.32322.15a
19611.04567.7a181.58824.58a
19621.27609a183.88125.50a
19630.99644.4a186.20427.70a
19641.87692a188.55529.62a
19651.93749.3a190.93731.47a
19663.34819.6a193.34834.20a
19672.83865.2a195.79039.70a
19684.56950.8a198.26344.30a
19695.381030a200.76649.45a
19705.021086.1a203.30256.16a
19715.431177.7a205.51566.20a
19724.211290.6a207.75272.48a
19736.331433.8a210.01378.01a
19749.431560a212.29986.19a
19758.81709.8a214.609104.19a
19765.381886.6a216.945124.11a
19776.522118.5a219.307128.77a
19787.812395.1a221.694136.55a
19798.992667.6a224.107148.69a
19808.712856.5a226.546173.31a
19819.823260.6a228.670198.35a
19825.83366.3a230.815211.39a
19833.863689.2a232.979232.78a
19843.814084.3a235.164242.81a
19853.144386.8a237.369269.17a
19861.924607.7a239.595292.27a
19872.754884.6a241.842314.42a
19883.965282.8a244.110333.01a
19893.95695.4a246.399359.66a
19903.896015.1a248.710397.29a
19913.286205.9a251.802442.30a
19922.156566.6a254.933499.10a
19932.526882.1a258.103529.17a
19942.197331.1a261.312550.28a
19952.137683.1a264.561596.33a
19961.788131.4a267.850607.59a
19971.868662.8a271.180629.05a
19981.199121.1a274.552651.10a
19991.419686.6a277.966693.43a
20002.5510318.2a282.172757.03a
20012.2210598a285.082834.39a
20021.510984a287.804918.01a
20032.0711566.7a290.326976.85a
20042.8912305.3a293.0461016.41a
20053.3613142.6a295.7531066.62a
20063.2113870.2a298.5931122.27a
20072.6314564.1a301.5801178.22a
20082.0314899a304.3751259.65a
20090.1114448.9a307.0071341.71a
20101.4515141.6a309.3271457.97a
20112.415647.7a311.5831509.05a
20121.7216319.5a313.8781503.63a
20131.6516953.8a316.0601525.97a

Legend:
a - actual reported
i - interpolated between actual reported values

Data Sources for 1950:
GDP, GO: GDP, GO Sources
Federal: Bicentennial Edition: Historical Statistics of the US, Colonial Times to 1970
State and Local: Bicentennial Edition: Historical Statistics of the US, Colonial Times to 1970

Data Sources for 2013:
GDP, GO: GDP, GO Sources
Federal: Fed. Budget: Hist. Tables 3.2, 5.1, 7.1
State and Local: State and Local Gov. Finances

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Suggested Video: What is the Deficit?

Top Spending Requests:

Find DEFICIT stats and history.

Get WELFARE stats and history.

US BUDGET overview and pie chart.

Find NATIONAL DEBT today.

DOWNLOAD spending data or debt data.

See FEDERAL BUDGET breakdown and estimated vs. actual.

MILITARY SPENDING details, budget and history.

ENTITLEMENT SPENDING history.

See BAR CHARTS of spending, debt.

Check STATE spending: CA NY TX FL and compare.

See SPENDING ANALYSIS briefing.

See SPENDING HISTORY briefing.

Take a COURSE at Spending 101.

Make your own CUSTOM CHART.

Spending Data Sources

Spending data is from official government sources.

Gross Domestic Product data comes from US Bureau of Economic Analysis and measuringworth.com.

Detailed table of spending data sources here.
Medicare breakdown here; Medicaid breakdown here.

Federal spending data begins in 1792.

State and local spending data begins in 1820.

State and local spending data for individual states begins in 1957.

Gross Federal Debt

Debt Now:  $34,608,412,560,642.47
Debt 2/2020:$23,409,959,150,243.63

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Blog

Federal Budget for FY25 Released

On March 11, 2024, we updated usgovernmentspending.com with the numbers from the Public Budget Database in the Budget of the United States Government for Fiscal Year 2025

Here is how headline budget estimates for the upcoming FY 2024 fiscal year have changed since the release of the FY 2024 budget a year ago in Winter 2023.

Federal Budget Changes for 2024
$ billionEstimate for 2024
in FY2024 Budget
Estimate for 2024
in FY2025 Budget
Change
Federal Outlays$6,371.8$6,940.9 +$569.1
Federal Receipts$4,802.5$5,081.6+$279.1
Federal Deficit$1,569.4$1,859.4+$290.0

You can see line item changes from budget to budget here. You can compare budget estimates with actuals here.

Account level spending estimates through FY 2029 come from the Outlays table in the Public Budget Database and were updated on usgovernmentspending.com on March 11, 2024.

Account level budget authority estimates through FY 2029 come from the Budget Authority table in the Public Budget Database and were updated on usgovernmentspending.com on March 11, 2024. 

Agency Debt Update for 2023
On March 11, 2024, usgovernmentspending.com updated its data for agency debt from the Federal Reserve Board database. Data is now available for the period 1945-2023. You can see our Agency Debt pag ...

US GDP for 2023 Updated
On January 19, 2024 usgovernmentspending.com updated its GDP series with the latest data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, ...

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