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Debt and Deficit Facts

Right now the Gross Federal Debt is $34,573,199,545,841.43.

At the end of FY 2023 the debt was $32.99 trillion, or 119.5% GDP.
The previous highest federal debt in US history was 119.0% GDP in 1946 just after World War II.

At the end of FY 2023 the federal deficit was $1,694 billion, or 6.1% GDP.
The highest federal deficit in US history was 29.0% GDP in 1943 in World War II.

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US National Debt and Deficit History


Two Centuries of Government Debt

In the century after Alexander Hamilton refunded the debts of the Revolutionary War with a federal debt, the United States only went into debt to pay for its wars. But then in the 1930s the administration of President Roosevelt attempted to get the nation out of the Great Depression with federal borrowings.

Total Government Debt Since 1900

Chart 4.01: Total Government Debt Since 1900



Federal Government Debt Since 1792

Chart 4.02: Federal Government Debt Since 1792

When charted in dollars, in Chart 4.01, the total accumulation of federal debt looks huge. Looking back over the last century, the debt back in 1900 doesn’t really register. But by charting accumulated debt as a percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in Chart 4.02, you get a look at government debt compared to the size of the economy at the time.

The federal debt was set up in the 1790s by the first Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton. Experienced in banking, Hamilton stabilized the dollar and refunded the debts incurred by the states in the Revolutionary War by refinancing them as an obligation of the new federal government. The bonds were to be “funded” by federal revenues earmarked for interest payments and repayment of principal. The resulting federal debt stood at 35% of gross domestic product (GDP). By the 1830s the Revolutionary war debt had been paid off—just in time for the Civil War when federal debt climbed back up to 33% of GDP. Still, the Civil War debt was pretty well paid off by the turn of the 20th century.

 


Total Government Debt since 1900

Total Government Debt Since 1900

Chart 4.03: Total Government Debt Since 1900

At the beginning of the 20th century total government debt was equally divided between federal and local debt, totaling less than 20 percent of GDP. State government debt was minimal. After World War I, the federal debt surged to 32% of GDP. But by the mid 1920s federal debt had declined to below 20 percent of GDP with state and local debt rising to 16 percent of GDP.

Chart Key:
- Federal gross debt
- Local gross debt
- State gross debt

Then came the Great Depression, and President Hoover decided to spend his way out of trouble, boosting federal debt to 39.4 percent of GDP in 1933. Debt for state and local governments shot up too, with state debt peaking at over 5 percent of GDP in 1933 and local debt peaking at over 28 percent in 1933. Total government debt in the bottom of the Great Depression in 1933, including federal and state and local debt, amounted to 70 percent of GDP.

After the total government debt peak of 70 percent in 1933, federal debt continued to increase under President Roosevelt, reaching 49 percent of GDP in 1940, while state and local debt declined, with state debt at 3.5 percent GDP in 1940 and local debt down to 16.2 percent GDP in 1940.

But it was in World War II that the US really entered new debt territory. Starting at 45 percent of GDP in 1941 federal debt zoomed, reaching almost 119 percent of GDP in 1946 after the end of the war, with state and local debt adding another 7 percent. For the next 35 years successive governments brought down the debt, but then came President Reagan. He increased the federal debt up to 50 percent of GDP to win the Cold War. President Bush increased the debt to fight a war on terror and bail out the banks. President Obama increased the debt to fund a plan to revive the economy in the aftermath of the Crash of 2008, breaking over 120 percent of GDP, federal, state and local in 2016. Then came COVID. In 2023 total debt -- federal, state, and local -- was estimated at 131.9 percent GDP.

 

A Century of Deficits

Federal Deficit Since 1900

Chart 4.04: Federal Deficit Since 1900

Today’s annual federal deficit, the difference between outlays and revenue in a single year, always seems dangerous and unprecedented. In fact, you need a war to really get a big deficit. The peak deficits came during World War I (17% of GDP in 1919) and World War II (24% in 1945), as the chart shows. The deficits of the Great Depression only came to about five percent of GDP, and the big $1.4 trillion deficit for FY 2009 amounted to 9.8% of GDP. In 2015 the federal deficit had come down to 2.43 percent GDP. In the COVID year 2023 the federal deficit was 6.1 percent GDP.

 

A Century of Interest Payments

Federal Interest Payments

Chart 4.05: Federal Interest Payments

The real risk from government debt is the burden of interest payments. Experts say that when interest payments reach about 12% of GDP then a government will likely default on its debt. Chart 4.05 shows that the US is a long way from that danger zone. The peak period for government interest payments, including federal, state, and local governments, was in the 1980s, when interest rates were still high after the inflationary 1970s. Of course, the numbers don’t show the burden of interest payments from Government Sponsored Enterprises like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and they don't show what the outlays for interest will be after the end of the current “quantitative easing” and “zero interest rate policy.”

Interest payments are expected to increase sharply in the near future as interest rates return to normal. Federal net interest costs in 2015 were at 1.22 percent GDP. In 2023 federal interest payments were 2.4 percent GDP.

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Debt Data Sources

Debt data is from official government sources.

Gross Domestic Product data comes from US Bureau of Economic Analysis and measuringworth.com.

Detailed table of debt data sources here.

Federal debt data begins in 1792.

State and local debt data begins in 1820.

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

Gross Federal Debt

Debt Now:  $34,573,199,545,841.43
Debt 2/2020:$23,409,959,150,243.63

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Data Sources for 2024:

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 FY25 Released

On March 11, 2024, we updated usgovernmentspending.com with the numbers from the Public Budget Database in the Budget of the United States Government for Fiscal Year 2025

Here is how headline budget estimates for the upcoming FY 2024 fiscal year have changed since the release of the FY 2024 budget a year ago in Winter 2023.

Federal Budget Changes for 2024
$ billionEstimate for 2024
in FY2024 Budget
Estimate for 2024
in FY2025 Budget
Change
Federal Outlays$6,371.8$6,940.9 +$569.1
Federal Receipts$4,802.5$5,081.6+$279.1
Federal Deficit$1,569.4$1,859.4+$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 2029 come from the Outlays table in the Public Budget Database and were updated on usgovernmentspending.com on March 11, 2024.

Account level budget authority estimates through FY 2029 come from the Budget Authority table in the Public Budget Database and were updated on usgovernmentspending.com on March 11, 2024. 

Agency Debt Update for 2023
On March 11, 2024, usgovernmentspending.com updated its data for agency debt from the Federal Reserve Board database. Data is now available for the period 1945-2023. You can see our Agency Debt pag ...

US GDP for 2023 Updated
On January 19, 2024 usgovernmentspending.com updated its GDP series with the latest data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, ...

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