US State Government Debt Since 1900

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For numbers from 1900-2018 click here.

State government debt began the 20th century at one percent of GDP and remained there until after World War I. In the 1920s it rose briskly to 2 percent of GDP, then peaked at over 5 percent of GDP in the depths of the Great Depression. State government debt fell sharply through World War II bottoming out at one percent of GDP in the late 1940s.

In the 1950s state government debt began growing strongly, tripling to 3.5 percent by 1960. After 1960 growth moderated, and state government debt peaked at 4.5 percent of GDP before declining to 4.3 percent in 1981. In the 1980s debt increased reaching 5.9 percent of GDP by 1992. Debt plateaued in the 1990s and then resumed growth in the 2000s, reaching almost 7.5 percent of GDP by 2009.

Federal, State, Local Debt in 20th Century

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For numbers from 1900-2018 click here.

At the beginning of the 20th century debt was equally divided between federal and state and local debt, totaling less than 20 percent of GDP. After World War I, the total debt surged to 45% of GDP. But by the mid 1920s debt had declined to below 35 percent of GDP. Then came the Great Depression, boosting total public debt to 70 percent of GDP. World War II boosted federal debt to almost 122 percent of GDP in 1946, with state and local debt adding another 7 percent. For the next 35 years successive governments brought the debt below 50 percent of GDP, but President Reagan increased the federal debt up over 50 perent of GDP, and total debt towards 70 perent to win the Cold War. President Bush increased the debt to fight a war on terror and bail out the banks in the crisis of 2008.