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Multiyear Download of US Government Spending 1950-2013
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.
back to chart |back to top | down to data series
| 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-category | Fed | 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. | X | ||||||
| ? 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.
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.
Below is a formatted version of the data.
| Year | Inflation | GDP-US $ billion nominal | Population-US million | Total Spending - State $ billion nominal | ||
| 1950 | 1.35 | 299.827 | a | 151.326 | 10.86 | a |
| 1951 | 7.66 | 346.914 | a | 153.917 | 10.83 | i |
| 1952 | 1.8 | 367.341 | a | 156.552 | 10.79 | a |
| 1953 | 1.27 | 389.218 | a | 159.232 | 11.47 | a |
| 1954 | 0.92 | 390.549 | a | 161.958 | 13.01 | a |
| 1955 | 1.81 | 425.478 | a | 164.731 | 14.37 | a |
| 1956 | 3.48 | 449.353 | a | 167.551 | 15.15 | a |
| 1957 | 3.39 | 474.039 | a | 170.420 | 16.80 | a |
| 1958 | 2.26 | 481.229 | a | 173.337 | 19.99 | a |
| 1959 | 1.47 | 521.654 | a | 176.305 | 22.44 | a |
| 1960 | 1.4 | 542.382 | a | 179.323 | 22.15 | a |
| 1961 | 1.09 | 562.209 | a | 181.588 | 24.58 | a |
| 1962 | 1.29 | 603.922 | a | 183.881 | 25.50 | a |
| 1963 | 1.19 | 637.45 | a | 186.204 | 27.70 | a |
| 1964 | 1.61 | 684.46 | a | 188.555 | 29.62 | a |
| 1965 | 1.95 | 742.289 | a | 190.937 | 31.47 | a |
| 1966 | 2.99 | 813.414 | a | 193.348 | 34.20 | a |
| 1967 | 2.98 | 859.959 | a | 195.790 | 39.70 | a |
| 1968 | 4.47 | 940.651 | a | 198.263 | 44.30 | a |
| 1969 | 5.06 | 1017.62 | a | 200.766 | 49.45 | a |
| 1970 | 5.29 | 1073.3 | a | 203.302 | 56.16 | a |
| 1971 | 5.24 | 1164.85 | a | 205.515 | 66.20 | a |
| 1972 | 4.55 | 1279.11 | a | 207.752 | 72.48 | a |
| 1973 | 5.79 | 1425.38 | a | 210.013 | 78.01 | a |
| 1974 | 8.95 | 1545.24 | a | 212.299 | 86.19 | a |
| 1975 | 9.24 | 1684.9 | a | 214.609 | 104.19 | a |
| 1976 | 5.8 | 1873.41 | a | 216.945 | 124.11 | a |
| 1977 | 6.5 | 2081.83 | a | 219.307 | 128.77 | a |
| 1978 | 7.42 | 2351.6 | a | 221.694 | 136.55 | a |
| 1979 | 8.56 | 2627.33 | a | 224.107 | 148.69 | a |
| 1980 | 9.01 | 2857.31 | a | 226.546 | 173.31 | a |
| 1981 | 9.7 | 3207.04 | a | 228.670 | 198.35 | a |
| 1982 | 6.07 | 3343.79 | a | 230.815 | 211.39 | a |
| 1983 | 4.1 | 3634.04 | a | 232.979 | 232.78 | a |
| 1984 | 3.87 | 4037.61 | a | 235.164 | 242.81 | a |
| 1985 | 3.29 | 4338.98 | a | 237.369 | 269.17 | a |
| 1986 | 2.08 | 4579.63 | a | 239.595 | 292.27 | a |
| 1987 | 2.56 | 4855.22 | a | 241.842 | 314.42 | a |
| 1988 | 3.67 | 5236.44 | a | 244.110 | 333.01 | a |
| 1989 | 4.06 | 5641.58 | a | 246.399 | 359.66 | a |
| 1990 | 3.81 | 5963.14 | a | 248.710 | 397.29 | a |
| 1991 | 3.38 | 6158.13 | a | 251.802 | 442.30 | a |
| 1992 | 2.36 | 6520.33 | a | 254.933 | 499.10 | a |
| 1993 | 2.43 | 6858.56 | a | 258.103 | 529.17 | a |
| 1994 | 2.22 | 7287.24 | a | 261.312 | 550.28 | a |
| 1995 | 2.15 | 7639.75 | a | 264.561 | 596.33 | a |
| 1996 | 1.9 | 8073.12 | a | 267.850 | 607.59 | a |
| 1997 | 1.8 | 8577.55 | a | 271.180 | 629.05 | a |
| 1998 | 1.17 | 9062.82 | a | 274.552 | 651.10 | a |
| 1999 | 1.48 | 9631.17 | a | 277.966 | 693.43 | a |
| 2000 | 2.36 | 10251 | a | 282.172 | 757.03 | a |
| 2001 | 2.27 | 10581.9 | a | 285.082 | 834.39 | a |
| 2002 | 1.58 | 10929.1 | a | 287.804 | 918.01 | a |
| 2003 | 2.03 | 11456.4 | a | 290.326 | 976.85 | a |
| 2004 | 2.79 | 12217.2 | a | 293.046 | 1016.41 | a |
| 2005 | 3.24 | 13039.2 | a | 295.753 | 1066.62 | a |
| 2006 | 3.17 | 13815.6 | a | 298.593 | 1122.27 | a |
| 2007 | 2.76 | 14474.2 | a | 301.580 | 1178.22 | a |
| 2008 | 1.93 | 14769.9 | a | 304.375 | 1259.65 | a |
| 2009 | 0.6 | 14478.1 | a | 307.007 | 1341.71 | a |
| 2010 | 1.25 | 15049 | a | 309.327 | 1457.97 | a |
| 2011 | 2.1 | 15599.7 | a | 311.583 | 1509.05 | a |
| 2012 | 1.9 | 16254 | a | 313.878 | 1503.63 | a |
| 2013 | 1.74 | 16880.7 | a | 316.060 | 1525.97 | a |
Legend: Data Sources for 1950: Data Sources for 2013: | ||||||
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Spending Data Sources
Spending data is from official government sources.
- Federal spending data since 1962 comes from the president’s budget.
- All other spending data comes from the US Census Bureau.
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: | $38,380,536,147,996.03 | Debt 2/2020: | $23,409,959,150,243.63 |
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Data Sources for 1950_2013:
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
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
> data sources for other years
> data update schedule.
Blog
Federal Budget for FY27 Released
On April 4, 2026, we updated usgovernmentspending.com with the numbers from the Public Budget Database in the Budget of the United States Government for Fiscal Year 2027.
Here is how headline budget estimates for the upcoming FY 2027 fiscal year have changed since the release of the FY 2025 budget in Winter 2024. There were no budgetary estimates in the budget documents for the FY 2026 budget.
| $ billion | Estimate for 2027 in FY2025 Budget | Estimate for 2027 in FY2027 Budget | Change |
| Federal Outlays | $7,696.6 | $8,092.9 | +$569.1 |
| Federal Receipts | $6,186.2 | $5,921.0 | +$279.1 |
| Federal Deficit | $1,510.3 | $2,171.9 | +$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 2031 come from the Outlays table in the Public Budget Database and were updated on usgovernmentspending.com on April 4, 2026.
Account level budget authority estimates through FY 2031 come from the Budget Authority table in the Public Budget Database and were updated on usgovernmentspending.com on April 4, 2026.
On March 15, 2026 usgovernmentspending.com updated its GDP series with the latest data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis ...
On January 21, 2026 the US Census Bureau released its US national and state population estimates for July 1, 2025. On February 7, 2026 usgovernmentspending.com updated its US and state popula ...
> blog
Budget News
President’s FY 2025 Budget Release Scheduled for March 11
Although the FY 2024 appropriations process is not yet resolved
Biden to Release Budget March 9
will press McCarthy On Default Risk - Bloomberg
Biden to Release 2023 Budget Request on March 28
how the administration expects to spend money for priorities including aid to Ukraine and the continuing effort to fight the coronavirus pandemic, as well as legislative proposals such as increased funding for community policing programs, cancer research, and mental health education.
> archive
Spend Links
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