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What is State Spending on Interest?

In FY 2024, state government outlays on interest were $37 billion.

Estimated spending on interest for FY 2025 is $38 billion.

State Interest Analysis  

 

This page shows the current trends in US State outlays on interest.

Recent US State Spending on Interest

Recent State Interest Spending

Chart S.71s: Recent State Interest Spending

State spending on interest has fluctuated aroung $45 billion from the late 2000s through the 2010s.

In the late 2010s state interest spending began a decline, but started increasing when interest rates were raised in 2022.

State interest spending for FY2024 was estimated at $37 billion.

Recent State Int Spend as Pct GDP

Chart S.72s: Recent State Int Spend as Pct GDP

Viewed from a GDP perspective, state spending on interest was steady at about 0.3 percent GDP in the late 2000s and has steadily decreased in the 2010s and on into the 2020s.

State spending on interest for FY2024 was estimated at 0.13 percent GDP.

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US State Spending on Interest Since 1900

State Interest since 1900

Chart S.73s: State Interest since 1900

State government spending on interest at the start of the 20th century was less than 0.05 percent of GDP and remained low until the 1920s. In the 1920s state spending on interest began a sharp increase, crossing 0.1 percent GDP in 1930 and peaking at 0.2 percent GDP at the bottom of the Great Depression in 1933. For the rest of the 1930s and through World War II state spending on interest declined sharply, bottoming out at 0.04 percent GDP in the early 1950s.

Starting in 1954 state spending on interest began a sustained increase, hitting 0.1 percent GDP in 1960, 0.2 percent GDP in 1974, 0.3 percent GDP in 1983 and peaking at 0.38 percent GDP in 1987.

In the 1990s and 2000s, state spending on interest declined, down to 0.26 percent GDP in 2005, and then increasing in the Great Recession to 0.31 percent GDP in 2009.

In the 2010s state spending on interest has steadily declined, down to 0.21 percent GDP in 2020.

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Spending Data Sources

Spending data is from official government sources.

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.

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Debt Now:  $37,852,655,815,448.95
Debt 2/2020:$23,409,959,150,243.63

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Data Sources for 2020_2029:

Sources for 2020:

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

Sources for 2029:

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 2023

On September 11, 2025 we updated the state and local spending and revenue for FY 2023 using the new Census Bureau State and Local Government Finances summaries for FY 2023 released on July 31, 2025.  (See also Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances). The release includes state and local spending for the United States as a whole and the 50 individual states and the District of Columbia.

State and local spending and revenue for FY2023 are now actual historical spending as reported by the Census Bureau. In addition, the Census Bureau published updated tables for 2021 and 2022.

We have updated the "guesstimated" state and local finances for FY2024-30 as indicated in our "guesstimate" blog entries.

We have also updated data for individual local government units with data for 2023. 

Beginning in 2022 the Census Bureau has changed the value for Line 56 Direct Expenditure and Line 7 General Revenue from own sources, as follows:

We have decided to end our publication of non-insurance trust cash and security holdings.

However, to keep the time series at usgovernmentspending.com consistent, we have decided to add insurance-trust values back into Line 56 and Line 7 values. 

State Spending for 2023
In March 2025 the US Census Bureau released data on state finances for FY 2023 here and  ...

Agency Debt Update for 2024
On June 24, 2025, usgovernmentspending.com updated its data for agency debt from the Federal Reserve Board database. Data is now available for the period 1945-2024. You can see our Agency Debt page ...

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