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GOVERNMENT INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

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Government Debt Chart

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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 2005 dollars, percent of GDP, 2005 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.
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.

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.
 
 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 2005) 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 “fullsize” tab control above the chart display.

Download Data

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Download Data File

 

Click button to download CSV file of dataset in chart.
 

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.

Gross Public Debt
Fiscal Years 1960 to 2017
YearGDP-US
$ billion nominal
Population-US
million
Gross Public Debt -fed
percent GDP
1960MW gdp179.32355.19a
1961MW gdp181.58853.72a
1962MW gdp183.88151.72a
1963MW gdp186.20450.23a
1964MW gdp188.55547.63a
1965MW gdp190.93744.82a
1966MW gdp193.34841.70a
1967MW gdp195.79040.90a
1968MW gdp198.26340.52a
1969MW gdp200.76637.16a
1970MW gdp203.30236.69a
1971MW gdp205.51536.22a
1972MW gdp207.75235.22a
1973MW gdp210.01333.73a
1974MW gdp212.29932.27a
1975MW gdp214.60933.09a
1976MW gdp216.94534.47a
1977MW gdp219.30734.80a
1978MW gdp221.69433.86a
1979MW gdp224.10732.37a
1980MW gdp226.54632.60a
1981MW gdp228.67031.82a
1982MW gdp230.81534.96a
1983MW gdp232.97938.81a
1984MW gdp235.16439.80a
1985MW gdp237.36943.09a
1986MW gdp239.59547.54a
1987MW gdp241.84249.53a
1988MW gdp244.11051.00a
1989MW gdp246.39952.31a
1990MW gdp248.71055.28a
1991MW gdp251.80260.05a
1992MW gdp254.93363.10a
1993MW gdp258.10365.26a
1994MW gdp261.31265.54a
1995MW gdp264.56166.36a
1996MW gdp267.85066.10a
1997MW gdp271.18064.44a
1998MW gdp274.55262.30a
1999MW gdp277.96659.93a
2000MW gdp282.17256.56a
2001MW gdp285.08256.09a
2002MW gdp287.80458.24a
2003MW gdp290.32660.67a
2004MW gdp293.04662.05a
2005MW gdp295.50762.63a
2006MW gdp298.10963.18a
2007MW gdp300.73363.80a
2008MW gdp303.38069.87a
2009MW gdp306.05184.99a
2010MW gdp308.74693.31a
2011MW gdp311.59297.93a
201215684.8314.123104.25e
201316335316.847107.43e
201417155.6319.594107.84e
201518177.8322.366106.87e
201619261.1325.010105.87e
201720368.6327.676104.70e

Legend:
a - actual reported
i - interpolated between actual reported values
e - estimated by usgovernmentspending.com
g - 'guesstimated' projection by usgovernmentspending.com
b - budgeted estimate in US FY13 budget

Data Sources for 2017:
GDP: Measuring Worth - US GDP
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
GDP: Fed. Budget: Hist. Table 10.1
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

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Next Data Update

> State GDP CY12

> data update schedule.

Data Sources for 1960_2017:

Sources for 1960:

GDP: Measuring Worth - US GDP
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 2017:

GDP: Fed. Budget: Hist. Table 10.1
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.

State and Local Spending for Individual States from 1957 to 1991

On June 15, 2013 usgovernmentspending.com loaded state and local spending and revenue for individual states going back to 1957.

Up to now, we have provided state and local finances from the present back to 1992 using data provided by the Census Bureau here.  But the Census Bureau also has data on individual states going back to 1957 here in file Govt_Finances.zip.

There is a break in data series at 1991-92.  The Census Bureau prior to 1992 has fewer line items than the post-1992 data.  There is also a break at 1976-77.  The Census Bureau prior to 1977 has fewer line items than the post-1977 data.    Typically, the data in reports for earlier years is reported in an aggregate item that sums up the detailed items in the more recent data reports.

These breaks in data have produced "notches" in some of the data series, and we have done some "juggle-ology" to produce smoother data series, as detailed below.

One problem in the pre-1992 data is that Medicaid is not broken out of welfare.  Up to now, for pre 1992 years we have estimated Medicaid expenses for all states combined based upon the assumption that the intergovernmental transfers to health care all apply to Medicaid and can be subtracted from the gross welfare expenditures to produce welfare net of Medicaid.  For each state, therefore, we have broken down pre-1992 gross welfare expenditures  between net welfare and Medicaid based upon the overall ratio for all states between net welfare (gross welfare less health care intergovernmental transfer) and Medicaid (health care intergovernmental transfer).

Another problem that the pre-1992 data seems to include judicial and legal system expenditures under "General Control" in the "General Government" category.  Data since 1992 has separate data series for judicial and legal system expenditures and we showed it under "Protection" in the default data view.  We have therefore created a new "default" view with judicial and legal system expenditures included under "General Government."  The old default view -- now labeled "old" -- has the judicial and legal system expenditures included under "Protection."  Typically, any links you have saved previous to June 15, 2013 will categorize data under the old default view.  New links will use the new default view, unless you select the old default view.

For 1958-60 combined state-and-local data only is reported in the Census Bureau data. So we have estimated state data and local data by interpolation from 1957 and 1961.

Spend links

us numbersus budgetcustom chartdeficit/gdpspend/gdpdebt/gdpus gdpus real gdpstate gdpbreakdownfederalstatelocal200920102011californiatexas

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usgovernmentspending.com was designed and executed by:

Christopher Chantrill.

Email here.


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