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What is Local Spending on Interest?

In FY 2025, local government outlays on interest were $74 billion.

Estimated spending on interest for FY 2026 is $80 billion.

Local Interest Analysis  

 

This page shows the current trends in US Local outlays on interest.

Recent US Local Spending on Interest

Recent Local Interest Spending

Chart S.71l: Recent Local Interest Spending

Local spending on interest was increasing in the late 2000s reaching $60 billion in 2010. In the first half of the 2010s local spending on interest kept below $65 billion, but increased to $70 billion in the late 2010s.

Local interest spending for FY2025 was estimated at $74 billion.

Recent Local Int Spend as Pct GDP

Chart S.72l: Recent Local Int Spend as Pct GDP

Viewed from a GDP perspective, local spending on interest in the late 2000s increased from 0.36 percent GDP to 0.41 percent GDP in 2009. In the 2010s local spending on interest has steadily declined, flattening out at 0.3 percent of GDP in the late 2010s.

In the early 2020s local interest spending declined to 0.26 percent GDP.

Local spending on interest for FY2025 was estimated at 0.25 percent GDP.

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US Local Spending on Interest Since 1900

Local Interest since 1900

Chart S.73l: Local Interest since 1900

Local government spending on interest at the start of the 20th century was 0.26 percent of GDP and increased steadily for the next 30 years, hitting 0.52 percent GDP in 1929. In the Great Depression local spending on interest began a sharp increase, hitting 1.09 percent GDP in 1933. For the rest of the 1930s and through World War II local spending on interest declined sharply, passing 0.51 percent GDP in 1940 and bottoming out at 0.11 percent GDP in 1951.

Starting in 1952 local spending on interest began a sustained increase, hitting 0.21 percent GDP in 1960, 0.3 percent GDP in 1974, 0.3 percent GDP in 1983 and peaking at 0.48 percent GDP in 1987.

In the 1990s and 2000s, local spending on interest declined, down to 0.4 percent GDP in 2000.

In the 2010s local spending on interest has steadily declined, down to 0.31 percent GDP in 2020.

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Spending Data Sources

Spending data is from official government sources.

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.

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Debt 2/2020:$23,409,959,150,243.63

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Data Sources for 2021_2029:

Sources for 2021:

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 2029:

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

CBO Long Term Budget Outlook for 2025

On March 27, 2025 the Congressional Budget Office released its annual Long Term Budget Outlook for 2025, which projects federal spending and revenue out to 2055.  As before, the data for the CBO study shows that federal health-care programs and interest costs will eat the budget, with federal spending exceeding 25 percent GDP by the 2040s while federal revenue stays a little over 19 percent GDP.

UsGovernmentspending.com has updated its chart of the CBO Long Term Budget Outlook here.  You can download the data and also view CBO Long Term Budget Outlooks going back to 1999.

State FY25 Taxes Update
On November 22, 2025 usgovernmentspending.com updated FY2025 state revenue with quarterly tax data released by the US Ce ...

Gross State Product for 2024
The US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released its Gross State Product (GSP) data for 2024 on March 29, 2025.Usgovernmen ...

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