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In FY 2024, total US government spending, federal, state, and local, is “guesstimated” to be $10.55 trillion. Federal spending is budgeted at $6.94 trillion; state spending is “guesstimated” at $2.29 trillion; local spending is “guesstimated” at $2.41 trillion.
In fiscal year 2024 the governments in the United States
are expected to spend about
38.5
percent of
Gross Domestic Product. Most of the money goes for health care, education, pensions, defense, and welfare
programs. Health care spending is split mainly between federal and state governments; education
spending occurs mainly at the local government level; pension spending is primarily the federal
governments Social Security program and the states’ government employee pension programs.
Governments in the US will spend $10.5 trillion in 2024.
In fiscal 2024 the federal government estimates spending will be $6.9 trillion, of which $1.1 trillion will be transferred to states and local governments. State spending for 2024 is "guesstimated" by usgovernmentspending.com at $2.3 trillion and local government spending is "guesstimated" by usgovernmentspending.com at $2.4 trillion.
Total spending at all levels of government in the United States is "guesstimated" by usgovernmentspending.com to be $10.5 trillion in 2024.
The four big functions each cost over one trillion dollars a year. Or more.
Where does all the money go? It is really quite simple. Governments at all levels, federal, state, and local, spend about $1.9 trillion a year on pensions, including Social Security and government employee pensions. Governments spend about $2.3 trillion a year on health care, principally Medicare and Medicaid. Governments spend about $1.5 trillion a year on education at all levels, principally at the local government level. The federal government spends about $1.3 trillion a year on defense, including the Departments of Defense, State, and Veterans Affairs. Governments spend $0.6 trillion on welfare programs other than Medicaid. All other spending amounts to $2.9 trillion, including interest on the national debt. The grand total of all the spending is $10.5 trillion.
Although the four big government programs — pensions, health care, education, and defense — each cost about a trillion dollars a year they are distributed unequally between the levels of government.
Chart 2.04: Total Spending Details
Total government spending in the United States, including federal, state, and local governments, is expected to total $10.55 trillion in FY 2024. The total features five major functions. Of the total spending, health care takes a 22 percent share, pensions an 18 percent share, education a 13 percent share, defense a 12 percent share, welfare an 8 percent share. All other functions, including interest on the debt, take 26 percent of spending.
Chart 2.05: Federal Spending Details
Federal spending is budgeted at $6.94 trillion in FY 2024, and includes four major functions. Health care, principally Medicare and Medicaid, takes a 25 percent share; pensions, principally Social Security, take a 22 percent share; defense, including foreign policy, veterans, and foreign aid, is 19 percent of spending; welfare takes 11 percent of spending. All other spending, including interest on the national debt, takes 23 percent of federal spending.
Notice that education is not a major item in federal spending.
Chart 2.06: State Spending Details
State government spending, as "guesstimated" by usgovernmentspending.com, will total about $2.29 trillion in FY 2024, and features three major functions. Health care takes 43 percent of spending; education has an 17 percent share; state government pensions have a 15 percent share. All other spending takes a 26 percent share of state government spending.
Chart 2.07: Local Spending Details
Local government spending, as "guesstimated" by usgovernmentspending.com, will total about $2.41 trillion in FY 2024, and features three major functions. Biggest program by far is education, K-12 schools, taking a full 37 percent of local spending; protection — police, fire and justice system — has a 10 percent share. health care has a 9 percent share; All other functions, at 44 percent of total, each take less than 7 percent of local government spending.
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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.
Debt Now: | $34,558,286,201,504.24 | Debt 2/2020: | $23,409,959,150,243.63 |
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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.
$ billion | Estimate 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.
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