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Right now the Gross Federal Debt is $34,542,838,497,262.94.
At the end of
FY 2023 the debt was $32.99 trillion,
or 119.5% GDP.
The previous highest federal debt in US history was 119.0% GDP in 1946 just after World War II.
At the end of
FY 2023 the federal deficit was $1,694 billion,
or 6.1% GDP.
The highest federal deficit in US history was 29.0% GDP in 1943 in World War II.
Government debt has been getting bigger.
The difference between gross and net is the amount of debt held in federal government trust funds.
Chart 4.14: Recent Federal Debt by Component
As reported by the federal government in Historical Table 7.1 of the federal budget, the gross debt of the general government is composed of three items: debt held by the Federal Reserve System and therefore monetized, debt owed to government agencies (e.g., Social Security), and debt held by the public, including foreign governments.
In 1990, the Federal Reserve System held debt amounting to 3.9 percent of GDP. Federal debt held by the federal government amounted to 13.3 percent of GDP and debt held by the public amounted to 36.4 percent of GDP.
Federal debt monetized by the Federal Reserve System increased to over 5 percent of GDP in 1998 and slowly increased, reaching 5.7 percent of GDP before declining in 2008 to 3.4 percent of GDP. In 2009, after the Crash of 2008, the debt held by the Federal Reserve System had increased back to 5.5 percent, and then, following a policy of “quantitative easing” and “zero interest rates,” increased to 14.1 percent of GDP in 2014. It was 17.9 percent GDP at the end of FY 2023.
Federal debt held by the government, principally IOUs to the Social Security system, has climbed steadily, 15 percent of GDP in 1992, and 20 percent in 1999. Debt held by the government exceeded 25 percent of GDP in 2005 and 30 percent of GDP in 2009. Debt held by the government was 24.4 percent of GDP at the end of FY 2023.
Federal debt held by the public (excluding the Federal Reserve System) amounted to 36.4 percent of GDP in 1990. It reached 41 percent of GDP in 1992 and peaked at 42.5 percent of GDP in 1993. Debt held by the public declined to 28.2 percent of GDP by 2000 before settling at about 29 percent of GDP till 2007. with the Crash of 2008 debt held by the public started increasing sharply, reaching 59.7 percent of GDP by 2012, and hit 77.1 percent GDP at the end of FY 2023.
Find DEFICIT stats and history.
US BUDGET overview and pie chart.
Find NATIONAL DEBT today.
See FEDERAL BUDGET breakdown and estimated vs. actual.
Check STATE debt: CA NY TX FL and compare.
See DEBT ANALYSIS briefing.
See DEBT HISTORY briefing.
Take a COURSE at Spending 101.
Make your own CUSTOM CHART.
Debt data is from official government sources.
Gross Domestic Product data comes from US Bureau of Economic Analysis and measuringworth.com.
Detailed table of debt data sources here.
Federal debt data begins in 1792.
State and local debt data begins in 1820.
State and local debt data for individual states begins in 1957.
Debt Now: | $34,542,838,497,262.94 | Debt 2/2020: | $23,409,959,150,243.63 |
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GDP, GO: GDP, GO Sources
Federal: Fed. Budget: Hist. Tables 3.2, 5.1, 7.1
State and Local: State and Local Gov. Finances
'Guesstimated' by projecting the latest change in reported spending forward to future years
> data sources for other years
> data update schedule.
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.
$ billion | Estimate 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.
> blog
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.
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