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What is the Total Government Spending in percent GDP?
In FY 2026, total US government spending, federal, state, and local, is “guesstimated” to be 44.6 percent GDP.
US Total Government Spending Breakdown
in percent GDP
Most government outlays are spent in just a few functional areas: pensions, health care, education, defense, and welfare.
Total Government Spending | |||
| Pensions | 7% GDP |  | |
| Health Care | + 8% GDP | | |
| Education | + 6% GDP | | |
| Defense | + 4% GDP | | |
| Welfare | + 3% GDP | | |
| Protection | + 2% GDP | | |
| Transportation | + 2% GDP | | |
| General Government | + 1% GDP | | |
| Other Spending | + 3% GDP | | |
| Interest | + 2% GDP | | |
| Total Spending | 36% GDP | | |
| Federal Deficit | + 3% GDP | | |
| Other Borrowing | + 4% GDP | | |
| Agency GSE Debt | + 45% GDP | | |
| Grants | + 4% GDP | | |
| Inflation | + 0% GDP | | |
| For detailed spending click here | Switch to revenue | ||
Spending Definitions
Pensions: Pensions, disability.
Health Care: Health care.
Education: K-12, college, training.
Defense: Military, foreign policy, veterans, foreign aid.
Welfare: Cash welfare, food stamps, unemployment benefits, workers compensation, housing, excluding health care.
Protection: Police, fire, law courts, prisons.
Transportation: Road, rail, airports.
General Government: Legislative, executive, finance.
Other Spending: Research, economic development, agriculture, energy, environment.
Interest: Interest on government debt.
Total Spending: Federal: total outlays including grants to state and local. State and local: direct spending on programs.
Spending Key:
Total spending: actual, as reported by the Office of Management and Budget and the US Bureau of the Census.
Tab-delimited Table
<table> Table
Suggested Video: Spending 101
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Find DEFICIT stats and history.
Get WELFARE stats and history.
US BUDGET overview and pie chart.
Find NATIONAL DEBT today.
DOWNLOAD spending data or debt data.
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.
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.
Sources
Gross Federal Debt
| Debt Now: | $38,380,536,147,996.03 | Debt 2/2020: | $23,409,959,150,243.63 |
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Data Sources for 2016:
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
Federal Budget for FY27 Released
On April 4, 2026, we updated usgovernmentspending.com with the numbers from the Public Budget Database in the Budget of the United States Government for Fiscal Year 2027.
Here is how headline budget estimates for the upcoming FY 2027 fiscal year have changed since the release of the FY 2025 budget in Winter 2024. There were no budgetary estimates in the budget documents for the FY 2026 budget.
| $ billion | Estimate for 2027 in FY2025 Budget | Estimate for 2027 in FY2027 Budget | Change |
| Federal Outlays | $7,696.6 | $8,092.9 | +$569.1 |
| Federal Receipts | $6,186.2 | $5,921.0 | +$279.1 |
| Federal Deficit | $1,510.3 | $2,171.9 | +$290.0 |
You can see line item changes from budget to budget here. You can compare budget estimates with actuals here.
Account level spending estimates through FY 2031 come from the Outlays table in the Public Budget Database and were updated on usgovernmentspending.com on April 4, 2026.
Account level budget authority estimates through FY 2031 come from the Budget Authority table in the Public Budget Database and were updated on usgovernmentspending.com on April 4, 2026.
On March 15, 2026 usgovernmentspending.com updated its GDP series with the latest data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis ...
On January 21, 2026 the US Census Bureau released its US national and state population estimates for July 1, 2025. On February 7, 2026 usgovernmentspending.com updated its US and state popula ...
> blog
Budget News
President’s FY 2025 Budget Release Scheduled for March 11
Although the FY 2024 appropriations process is not yet resolved
Biden to Release Budget March 9
will press McCarthy On Default Risk - Bloomberg
Biden to Release 2023 Budget Request on March 28
how the administration expects to spend money for priorities including aid to Ukraine and the continuing effort to fight the coronavirus pandemic, as well as legislative proposals such as increased funding for community policing programs, cancer research, and mental health education.
> archive
Spend Links
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