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What is the Deficit?
Deficit: The amount by which the government’s total budget outlays exceeds its total receipts for a fiscal year. —US Senate Budget Committee
In FY 2018 the federal deficit was $779 billion. But the gross federal debt increased by $1250 billion. Here is why.
This year, FY 2019, the federal government in its latest budget has estimated that the deficit will be $984 billion.
Here is the federal deficit by year for the last decade:
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Click for deficits from 1960 to present.
See also deficit as percent of GDP.
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Federal Deficit Analysis
Recent US Federal Deficits by Year
Budgeted US Federal Deficits
But there’s more
The federal debt increases each year by more than the deficit. For FY 2019 the federal budget estimates that the federal debt will increase by about $1.24 trillion. That’s about $256 billion more than the official “deficit.” See Federal Debt.
But there’s more. There is the increase in in the “agency debt” of government-sponsored enterprises like the Federal National Mortgage Association. And there is the implied deficit from unfunded liabilities like Social Security and Medicare. See chart of latest Long-term Budget Outlook from the Congressional Budget Office.
Now you are ready to explore. Click here for the basics on the national debt and deficits. Click here for a look at overall government spending; click here for a look at the federal budget by function. And there is no better place to get up to speed than Spending 101’s online course on Federal Debt.
US Federal Deficits in the 20th Century
Chart D.03f: Federal Deficit in 20th Century
The two major peaks of the federal deficit in the 20th century occurred during World War I and World War II.
Deficits increased steadily from the 1960s through the early 1990s, and then declined rapidly for the remainder of the 1990s.
Federal deficits increased in the early 2000s, and went over 10 percent of GDP in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008.
In the recovery from the Crash of 2008 deficits have slowly reduced to 3 percent of GDP.
Suggested Video: What is the Deficit?
Top Debt Requests:
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US BUDGET overview and pie chart.
Find NATIONAL DEBT today.
See FEDERAL BUDGET breakdown and estimated vs. actual.
Check STATE debt: CA NY TX FL and compare.
See DEBT ANALYSIS briefing.
See DEBT HISTORY briefing.
Take a COURSE at Spending 101.
Make your own CUSTOM CHART.
Debt Data Sources
Debt data is from official government sources.
- Federal debt data since 1962 comes from the president’s budget.
- Federal debt for 1940-1961 comes from the president’s budget.
- Federal debt for 1914-1939 comes from the
US Treasury
and St. Louis Fed.
- Federal debt before 1914 comes from the
US Treasury
- All other debt data comes from the US Census Bureau.
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.
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Top links
Data Sources for 2014_2023:
Sources for 2014:
GDP, GO: GDP, GO Sources
Federal: Fed. Budget: Hist. Tables 3.2, 5.1, 7.1
State and Local: State and Local Gov. Finances
Sources for 2023:
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.
Federal Deficit, Receipts, Outlays Actuals for FY18
| Federal Finances FY 2018 Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|
| Budget billions | Outcome billions | |
| Receipts | $3,340 | $3,329 |
| Outlays | $4,130 | $4,108 |
| Deficit | $833 | $779 |
usgovernmentspending.com now shows the new numbers for total FY 2018 total outlays and receipts on its Estimate vs. Actual page.
The Monthly Treasury Statement includes "Table 4: Receipts of the United States Government, September 2018 and Other Periods." This table of receipts by source is used for usgovernmentspending.com to post details of federal receipt actuals for FY 2018.
This FTS report on FY 18 actuals is a problem for usgovernmentspending.com because this site uses Historical Table 3.2--Outlays by Function and Subfunction from the Budget of the United States as its basic source for federal subfunction outlays. But the Monthly Treasury Statement only includes "Table 9. Summary of Receipts by Source, and Outlays by Function of the U.S. Government, September 2018 and Other Periods". Subfunction amounts don't get reported until the FY20 budget in February 2019. Until then usgovernmentspending.com estimates actual outlays by "subfunction" for FY 2018 by factoring subfunction budgeted amounts for FY18 by the ratio between relevant actual and budgeted "function" amounts where actual outlays by subfunction cannot be gleaned from the Monthly Treasury Statement.
Final detailed FY 2018 actuals will not appear on usgovernmentspending.com until the FY 2020 federal budget is published in February 2019 with the actual outlays for FY 2018 in Historical Table 3.2--Outlays by Function and Subfunction.
Budget News
FY 2019 Budget Release Date
White House budget release on Feb. 12 at the earliest
White House says full fiscal 2018 budget to be released on May 23
including Historical Tables, etc.
Trump FY18 Budget News
Discretionary spending on March 16.
> archive
Blog
State FY18 Taxes Update
On September 20, 2018 usgovernmentspending.com updated FY2018 state revenue with quarterly tax data...
State and Local Finances for FY 2016
On September 16, 2018 we updated the state and local spending and revenue for FY 2016 using the new...
CBO Long Term Budget Outlook for 2018
On June 26, 2018 the Congressional Budget Office released its annual Long Term Budget Outlook for...
> blog
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