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Spending Analyses:
Numbers — Charts:
Spending Breakdown:
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How Much is Government Spending Changing?
In FY 2026, total US government spending, federal, state, and local, is “guesstimated” to be $12.76 trillion, an increase of 6.3% from FY 2025.
Spending Percentage Change for 2019
Here’s how government spending changed, percentage wise.
United States Total Government Spending
Percent Change from 2018 to 2019
| $ billion nom 2019 | increase over 2018 | percent over 2018 | |||
| Pensions | 1,445.5 | 72.7 | 5.3 % | ||
| Health Care | 1,693.9 | 121.5 | 7.7 % | ||
| Education | 1,191.7 | 81.0 | 7.3 % | ||
| Defense | 940.1 | 79.8 | 9.3 % | ||
| Welfare | 497.6 | 18.8 | 3.9 % | ||
| Protection | 308.5 | 9.3 | 3.1 % | ||
| Transportation | 354.7 | 16.9 | 5.0 % | ||
Total Spending | 7,690.6 | 464.7 | 6.4 % |
Spending Key:
Total spending: actual, as reported by the Office of Management and Budget and the US Bureau of the Census.
Data Sources for 2018:
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 2019:
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
Suggested Video: All About Welfare
Top Spending Requests:
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
US Treasury Combined Statement
of Receipts, Outlays, and Balances
U.S. Federal Individual Income Tax Rates History, 1913-2011
US Federal Income tax rate Schedules
New GOVINFO federal budget page
from US Government Printing Office
Measuring Worth - GDP Series for US and UK
includes GDP and chained GDP for US; GDP and chained GDP for UK
Gross Domestic Product by State
from Bureau of Economic Analysis
US Population Estimates from 1900
Census Bureau's annual population estimate from 1900 to 1999
2005 Census of Governments - Finance Technical Documentation
Contains Census Bureau spending and revenue codes
JpGraph Chart Library
Open source graph creating Library for PHP.
Statistical Abstract of the United States
historical editions of Census Bureau's publication. From 1878.
Historical US Federal Expenditure by Function 1902-1970
Table from Historical Statistics of the United States: Chapter Y: Government. Includes US Federal Expenditure 1902-1970, p 1123-1124.
> archive
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 2019:
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
US, State Population Update for 2025
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 population data as follows:
- We updated 2020-2025 population data from US and states using data from US Census National Population Totals and Components of Change 2020-2025 in file NST-EST2025-POP.xlsx.
- We projected 2022 thru 2030 for the US and states projecting population rate change for 2024-25 through 2030.
usgovernmentspending.com uses population data in computing per capita spending and revenue data. You can see per capita spending data in a chart here, and in a table of spending here.
You can check the data update schedule here.
On January 14, 2026, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published its annual report on ...
On March 27, 2025 the Congressional Budget Office released its annual Long Term Budget Outlook for 2025, which projects federal spendin ...
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Budget News
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Spend Links
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