In FY 2015, total US government spending, federal, state, and local, was “guesstimated” to be $6.36 trillion, with federal $3.69 trillion; state $1.57 trillion; local $1.73 trillion.

National Spending Analysis also: Revenue Charts Debt Charts Deficit Charts

This page shows the current trends in US national spending. Also see charts on US spending history. See also: Social Security Spending and Medicare Spending

Recent US Total Government Spending

Chart S.01t: Recent Total Government Spending

Chart S.02t: Recent Total Spending as Pct GDP

Total US Government Spending, federal, state and local, was increasing briskly, year on year, in the mid 2000s from $4.4 trillion in 2005 to $6 trillion in the depths of the Great Recession in 2009. But since the end of the recession total government spending has leveled out at $6 trillion per year.

Viewed from a GDP perspective, total government spending was steady at about 33 percent GDP in the mid 2000s and then jumped, in the Great Recession, to 41 percent GDP. But in the subsequent economic recovery total government spending has stead declined as a percent of GDP down to about 34 percent GDP in 2015.

Deficits and Debts

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US Total Government Spending Since 1900

Chart S.03t: Total Spending as Percent GDP

Government spending at the start of the 20th century was less than 7 percent of GDP. It vaulted to almost 30 percent of GDP by the end of World War I, and then settled down to 10 percent of GDP in the 1920s. In the 1930s spending doubled to 20 percent of GDP. Defense spending in World War II drove overall government spending over 50 percent of GDP before declining to 22 percent of GDP in the late 1940s. The 1950s began a steady spending increase to about 36 percent of GDP by 1982. In the 1990s and 2000s government spending stayed about constant at 33-35 percent of GDP, but in the aftermath of the Crash of 2008 spending has jogged up to 40 percent of GDP.

Federal, State, Local Spending in 20th Century

Chart S.04t: Federal State and Local Spending
in 20th Century

At the start of the 20th century, government spending was principally local government spending. Out of a total of 7 percent of GDP, a full 4 percent was spent at the local level. Federal spending spiked in World War I, but in the 1920s, local government still represented about half of all government spending. In the 1930s this changed, and federal spending surged to about half of all government spending. After the spike of World War II the federal share increased again and state government spending also began to increase as a percent of GDP, so that by the 2010s federal spending checked in at over 20 percent of GDP, state spending amounted to 8 to 9 percent of GDP and local spending exceeded 10 percent of GDP.

Top Spending Requests:

Find DEFICIT stats and history.

Get WELFARE stats and history.

US BUDGET overview and pie chart.

Find NATIONAL DEBT today.

See FEDERAL BUDGET breakdown and estimated vs. actual.

MILITARY SPENDING details, budget and history.

ENTITLEMENT SPENDING history.

See BAR CHARTS of spending, debt.

Check STATE spending: CA NY TX FL and compare.

See SPENDING ANALYSIS briefing.

See SPENDING HISTORY briefing.

Take a COURSE at Spending 101.

Make your own CUSTOM CHART.

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.

Federal spending data begins in 1792.

State and local spending data begins in 1890.

State and local spending data for individual states begins in 1957.

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Data Sources for 2011_2021:

Sources for 2011:

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

Sources for 2021:

> data sources for other years
> data update schedule.

State Finances for FY2014

On June 7, 2016 the US Census Bureau released data on state finances for FY 2014 here, including spending and revenue for each individual state and for all states combined.

On June 9, 2016 we updated state and local spending and revenue data for FY2014 through FY2021 as follows:

We replaced "guesstimated" state spending and revenue data for FY2014 using the new FY2014 data from the Census Bureau.
We replaced "guesstimated" local spending and revenue data for FY 2014 with estimates for each spending and revenue category using the trends in state finances between FY 2013 and FY 2014.
We replaced "guesstimated" state revenue data for FY 2015 with data from the Census Bureau's quarterly state tax summary here.
We replaced "guesstimated" local revenue data for FY 2015 with estimates for each category using trends for each category of state revenue between FY 2015 and FY 2015.
We replaced "guesstimated" state and local spending and revenue for FY 2015 thru FY2021 with new guesstimates based on the latest Census Bureau data for FY 2014 state finances and FY 2015 quarterly tax data.