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Spending Analyses:
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Spending Breakdown:
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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 43.3 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 | |||
| Government Pensions | 7% GDP |  | |
| Government Health Care | + 8% GDP | | |
| Government Education | + 6% GDP | | |
| National Defense | + 4% GDP | | |
| Government Welfare | + 2% GDP | | |
| All Other Spending | + 9% GDP | | |
| Total Government Spending | 36% GDP | | |
| Federal Deficit | + 3% GDP | | |
| For detailed spending click here | Switch to revenue | ||
Spending Definitions
Government Pensions: Pensions, disability.
Government Health Care: Health care.
Government Education: K-12, college, training.
National Defense: Military, foreign policy, veterans, foreign aid.
Government Welfare: Cash welfare, food stamps, unemployment benefits, workers compensation, housing, excluding health care.
All Other Spending: Police, fire, law courts, prisons; Road, rail, airports; Legislative, executive, finance; Research, economic development, agriculture, energy, environment; Interest on government debt.
Total Government 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.
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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: | $39,375,254,020,492.22 | Debt 2/2020: | $23,409,959,150,243.63 |
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Data Sources for 2017:
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
State and Local Finances for 2024 -- First Look
On July 2, 2026 we updated the state and local spending and revenue for FY 2024 using the new Census Bureau State and Local Government Finances "first look"summaries for FY 2024 released in April 2026. (See also Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances). The release includes state and local spending for the United States as a whole. It does not include the 50 individual states and the District of Columbia.
State and local spending and revenue for FY2024 are now actual historical spending as reported by the Census Bureau.
We have updated the "guesstimated" state and local finances for FY2025-31 as indicated in our "guesstimate" blog entries.
Beginning in 2021, the Census Bureau stopped splitting "Public welfare" into three parts:
- Cash assistance payments
- Vendor payments
- Other public welfare
On June 16, 2026, the Center for Medicare Services released its annual ...
On February 25, 2026 the Congressional Budget Office released its annual Long Term Budget Outlook for 2026, which projects ...
> 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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