The two charts show above show recent and estimated gross debt issued by all levels of government in the United States. On the left is a chart of the debt in current dollars. On the right is a chart of the debt as a percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Note:

* Federal Debt after 2010 is budgeted.

US Total Government Debt Since 1900

Click chart for briefing on Total Government Debt.
For numbers from 1900-2016 click here.

Government debt began the 20th century at less than 20 percent of GDP. It jerked above 45 percent as a result of World War I and above 70 percent in the depths of the Great Depression. Debt has breached 100 percent of GDP twice since 1900: during World War II and in the aftermath of the Crash of 2008.

Federal, State, Local Debt in 20th Century

Click chart for briefing on Total Debt.
For numbers from 1900-2016 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.

There’s much, much more:

Create CHARTS of government spending history here.
Look at TABLES of spending breakdown year-by-year for federal, state, and local here.
DOWNLOAD data for a single year here.
Take a TOUR of the website here.

What is the spending data; where is it from?

Federal spending data begins in 1792.
State and local spending data begins in 1902.
Spending data is from official government sources.
Federal 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 measuringworth.com.

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Data Sources for :

GDP: Measuring Worth - US GDP
Federal: Bicentennial Edition: Historical Statistics of the US, Colonial Times to 1970
State: Bicentennial Edition: Historical Statistics of the US, Colonial Times to 1970

> data sources for other years
> data update schedule.

Federal Budget FY 13 Released

On February 13, 2012, we updated usgovernmentspending.com with the numbers from the historical tables in the FY13 federal budget. Actual revenue for FY 2011 and estimated revenue through FY 2017 come from Tables 2.1, 2.4, and 2.5. Actual spending for FY 2011 and estimated spending at the subfunction level through FY 2017 comes from Table 3.2. Federal debt estimates come from Table 7.1 and GDP estimates come from Table 10.1.

You can see you each line item changes from budget to budget here. You can compare budget estimates with actuals here.

Account level spending estimates through FY 2017 come from the outlays table in the Public Budget Database and will be updated in the next few days.

Blog

State Finances Update for FY 2010
On December 14, 2011 the US Census Bureau released data on state finances for FY 2010 here, includin...

Revision to State and Local Data for 2001, 2003
We have revised state and local spending and revenue data for 2001 and 2003. For 2001 and 2003 the ...

State and Local Update for 2009
On October 31, 2011 usgovernmentspending.com updated the state and local spending and revenue from F...

> blog

Masthead

usgovernmentdebt.us was designed and executed by:

Christopher Chantrill.

Email here.

Democratic Capitalism

Three dynamic and converging systems functioning as one: a democratic polity, an economy based on markets and incentives, and a moral-cultural system which is plural and, in the largest sense, liberal.
Michael Novak, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism

usgovernmentspending.com

presented by Christopher Chantrill
Data Sources • Contact

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BUDGET DATA

CENSUS DATA

US BUDGET FY10

US BUDGET FY09

US BUDGET DATA

US CENSUS BUREAU

SPENDING
BY YEAR

SPENDING
BY DECADE

SPENDING
BY STATE

Analysis

Debt Charts

Debt in billions

Debt in Percent GDP

There’s much, much more:

Create CHARTS of government spending history here.
Look at TABLES of spending breakdown year-by-year for federal, state, and local here.
DOWNLOAD data for a single year here.
Take a TOUR of the website here.

What is the spending data; where is it from?

Site Search

Win Cash for Bugs

Data Sources for :

Top links

Federal Budget FY 13 Released

Blog

Masthead

Democratic Capitalism

Site Links

Sister Sites

BUDGET DATA

CENSUS DATA

US BUDGET FY10

US BUDGET FY09

US BUDGET DATA

US CENSUS BUREAU

SPENDING BY YEAR

SPENDING BY DECADE

SPENDINGBY STATE

Analysis

Debt Charts

Debt in billions

Debt in Percent GDP

There’s much, much more:

Create CHARTS of government spending history here. Look at TABLES of spending breakdown year-by-year for federal, state, and local here. DOWNLOAD data for a single year here. Take a TOUR of the website here.

What is the spending data; where is it from?

Site Search

Win Cash for Bugs

Data Sources for :

Top links

Federal Budget FY 13 Released

Blog

Masthead

Democratic Capitalism

SPENDING
BY YEAR

SPENDING
BY DECADE

SPENDING
BY STATE

Create CHARTS of government spending history here.
Look at TABLES of spending breakdown year-by-year for federal, state, and local here.
DOWNLOAD data for a single year here.
Take a TOUR of the website here.