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Spending Analyses:
Debt, Deficit Analyses:
Numbers — Charts:
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Defense Share Of Federal Spending
Create and customize your own charts of government spending.
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. Linear/Log: By default, the data series are displayed as linear charts. But you can also select a log chart. Linear charts show constant amount changes as a straight line; Log charts show constant rates of change as a straight line. Line/Bar: By default, the data series are displayed as line charts. But you can also select a bar chart. Data Stack: By default, the data series are “stacked” when displayed on the chart. But you can change the setting to “un stack” the data series. Chart Size: By default, the chart is displayed at medium size. But you can use the dropdown control to change the size. Color: By default charts are displayed with color data lines and fill. You can change this to grayscale if you want. Or display a chart using Google API or chart.js API. 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 7) | 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 | X | ||||||
| All Categories | |||||||
If you’d like to create your own custom chart 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. Then click a radio button to select the level of government: federal, state, or local. If you select from the < select > you will add another data series to your chart. Up to 5 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 2017) dollars, or as percent of GDP.
- Choose chart features: You can select the size of the chart, switch from bar chart to line chart, select color or black and white, stacked or not. You can also blow up the chart to fill the screen with the “full screen” tab control above the chart display.
Download Data
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.
View Data Series
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Below is a formatted version of the data displayed in the chart.
| Year | Inflation | GDP-US $ billion nominal | Population-US million | Defense - Federal percent federal total | ||
| 1935 | 2.18 | 74.2 | a | 127.605 | 24.725 | i |
| 1936 | 1.39 | 84.8 | a | 128.504 | 28.947 | a |
| 1937 | 4.55 | 93 | a | 129.410 | 24.446 | i |
| 1938 | -2.71 | 87.4 | a | 130.321 | 19.564 | a |
| 1939 | -1.16 | 93.4 | a | 131.240 | 20.594 | i |
| 1940 | 1.36 | 102.9 | a | 132.165 | 21.459 | a |
| 1941 | 7.95 | 129.3 | a | 133.966 | 51.151 | i |
| 1942 | 9.5 | 166 | a | 135.792 | 76.179 | a |
| 1943 | 5.32 | 203.1 | a | 137.643 | 84.893 | i |
| 1944 | 2.53 | 224.4 | a | 139.519 | 85.652 | a |
| 1945 | 2.58 | 228 | a | 141.421 | 87.713 | i |
| 1946 | 11.39 | 227.5 | a | 143.349 | 80.147 | a |
| 1947 | 10.86 | 249.6 | a | 145.303 | 55.133 | i |
| 1948 | 5.86 | 274.5 | a | 147.283 | 55.476 | a |
| 1949 | -0.17 | 272.5 | a | 149.291 | 54.712 | i |
| 1950 | 1.33 | 299.8 | a | 151.326 | 54.105 | a |
| 1951 | 7.66 | 346.9 | a | 153.917 | 59.710 | a |
| 1952 | 1.8 | 367.3 | a | 156.552 | 72.222 | a |
| 1953 | 1.52 | 391.2 | a | 159.232 | 71.181 | a |
| 1954 | 0.72 | 391 | a | 161.958 | 67.993 | a |
| 1955 | 2.01 | 430.2 | a | 164.731 | 64.224 | a |
| 1956 | 3.93 | 451.2 | a | 167.551 | 61.998 | a |
| 1957 | 3.2 | 479.5 | a | 170.420 | 62.725 | a |
| 1958 | 2.04 | 485.8 | a | 173.337 | 60.140 | a |
| 1959 | 1.34 | 525 | a | 176.305 | 57.718 | a |
| 1960 | 1.44 | 545.6 | a | 179.323 | 54.778 | a |
| 1961 | 1.04 | 567.7 | a | 181.588 | 54.346 | a |
| 1962 | 1.27 | 609 | a | 183.881 | 59.550 | a |
| 1963 | 0.99 | 644.4 | a | 186.204 | 57.701 | a |
| 1964 | 1.87 | 692 | a | 188.555 | 55.164 | a |
| 1965 | 1.93 | 749.3 | a | 190.937 | 52.116 | a |
| 1966 | 3.34 | 819.6 | a | 193.348 | 51.745 | a |
| 1967 | 2.83 | 865.2 | a | 195.790 | 53.172 | a |
| 1968 | 4.56 | 950.8 | a | 198.263 | 52.921 | a |
| 1969 | 5.38 | 1030 | a | 200.766 | 51.589 | a |
| 1970 | 5.02 | 1086.1 | a | 203.302 | 48.403 | a |
| 1971 | 5.43 | 1177.7 | a | 205.515 | 44.158 | a |
| 1972 | 4.21 | 1290.6 | a | 207.752 | 41.046 | a |
| 1973 | 6.33 | 1433.8 | a | 210.013 | 37.788 | a |
| 1974 | 9.43 | 1560 | a | 212.299 | 36.548 | a |
| 1975 | 8.8 | 1709.8 | a | 214.609 | 33.161 | a |
| 1976 | 5.38 | 1886.6 | a | 216.945 | 30.792 | a |
| 1977 | 6.52 | 2118.5 | a | 219.307 | 29.723 | a |
| 1978 | 7.81 | 2395.1 | a | 221.694 | 28.547 | a |
| 1979 | 8.99 | 2667.6 | a | 224.107 | 28.517 | a |
| 1980 | 8.71 | 2856.5 | a | 226.546 | 28.411 | a |
| 1981 | 9.82 | 3260.6 | a | 228.670 | 28.545 | a |
| 1982 | 5.8 | 3366.3 | a | 230.815 | 29.711 | a |
| 1983 | 3.86 | 3689.2 | a | 232.979 | 30.505 | a |
| 1984 | 3.81 | 4084.3 | a | 235.164 | 31.566 | a |
| 1985 | 3.14 | 4386.8 | a | 237.369 | 31.193 | a |
| 1986 | 1.92 | 4607.7 | a | 239.595 | 31.691 | a |
| 1987 | 2.75 | 4884.6 | a | 241.842 | 31.912 | a |
| 1988 | 3.96 | 5282.8 | a | 244.110 | 31.025 | a |
| 1989 | 3.9 | 5695.4 | a | 246.399 | 30.005 | a |
| 1990 | 3.89 | 6015.1 | a | 248.710 | 27.308 | a |
| 1991 | 3.28 | 6205.9 | a | 251.802 | 24.199 | a |
| 1992 | 2.15 | 6566.6 | a | 254.933 | 25.229 | a |
| 1993 | 2.52 | 6882.1 | a | 258.103 | 24.407 | a |
| 1994 | 2.19 | 7331.1 | a | 261.312 | 23.008 | a |
| 1995 | 2.13 | 7683.1 | a | 264.561 | 21.534 | a |
| 1996 | 1.78 | 8131.4 | a | 267.850 | 20.265 | a |
| 1997 | 1.86 | 8662.8 | a | 271.180 | 20.299 | a |
| 1998 | 1.19 | 9121.1 | a | 274.552 | 19.549 | a |
| 1999 | 1.41 | 9686.6 | a | 277.966 | 19.580 | a |
| 2000 | 2.55 | 10318.2 | a | 282.172 | 20.046 | a |
| 2001 | 2.22 | 10598 | a | 285.082 | 19.660 | a |
| 2002 | 1.5 | 10984 | a | 287.804 | 20.973 | a |
| 2003 | 2.07 | 11566.7 | a | 290.326 | 22.351 | a |
| 2004 | 2.89 | 12305.3 | a | 293.046 | 23.657 | a |
| 2005 | 3.36 | 13142.6 | a | 295.753 | 24.271 | a |
| 2006 | 3.21 | 13870.2 | a | 298.593 | 23.395 | a |
| 2007 | 2.63 | 14564.1 | a | 301.580 | 23.915 | a |
| 2008 | 2.03 | 14899 | a | 304.375 | 24.464 | a |
| 2009 | 0.11 | 14448.9 | a | 307.007 | 22.574 | a |
| 2010 | 1.45 | 15141.6 | a | 309.327 | 24.505 | a |
| 2011 | 2.4 | 15647.7 | a | 311.583 | 24.382 | a |
| 2012 | 1.72 | 16319.5 | a | 313.878 | 23.800 | a |
| 2013 | 1.65 | 16953.8 | a | 316.060 | 23.704 | a |
| 2014 | 1.96 | 17804.2 | a | 318.386 | 22.815 | a |
| 2015 | 0.91 | 18401.6 | a | 320.739 | 21.709 | a |
| 2016 | 0.86 | 18892.6 | a | 323.072 | 21.109 | a |
| 2017 | 1.82 | 19692.6 | a | 325.122 | 20.635 | a |
| 2018 | 2.49 | 20798.7 | a | 326.838 | 20.906 | a |
| 2019 | 1.64 | 21694.3 | a | 328.330 | 21.106 | a |
| 2020 | 1.25 | 21647.6 | a | 331.527 | 15.426 | a |
Legend: Data Sources for 1935: Data Sources for 2020: | ||||||
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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: | $34,552,930,923,742.92 | Debt 2/2020: | $23,409,959,150,243.63 |
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Data Sources for 1935_2020:
Sources for 1935:
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 2020:
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.
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.
| $ 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.
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 ...
On January 19, 2024 usgovernmentspending.com updated its GDP series with the latest data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, ...
> 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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