|
Spending Analyses:
Numbers — Charts:
Spending Breakdown:
| Tweet | | Contact | Follow @chrischantrill |
What is the Total Government Spending?
In FY 2026, total US government spending, federal, state, and local, is “guesstimated” to be $13.57 trillion.
US Total Government Spending Breakdown
in $ trillion
Most government outlays are spent in just a few functional areas: pensions, health care, education, defense, and welfare.
Total Government Spending | |||
| Government Pensions | $2.2 trillion |  | |
| Government Health Care | + $2.9 trillion | | |
| Government Education | + $2.0 trillion | | |
| National Defense | + $1.4 trillion | | |
| Government Welfare | + $0.7 trillion | | |
| All Other Spending | + $3.5 trillion | | |
| Total Government Spending | $13.2 trillion | | |
| Federal Deficit | + $1.5 trillion | | |
| For detailed spending click here | Switch to revenue | ||
Spending Definitions
Government Pensions: Pensions, disability.
Government Health Care: Health care.
Government Education: K-12, college, training.
National Defense: Military, foreign policy, veterans, foreign aid.
Government Welfare: Cash welfare, food stamps, unemployment benefits, workers compensation, housing, excluding health care.
All Other Spending: Police, fire, law courts, prisons; Road, rail, airports; Legislative, executive, finance; Research, economic development, agriculture, energy, environment; Interest on government debt.
Total Government Spending: Federal: total outlays including grants to state and local. State and local: direct spending on programs.
Spending Key:
Total spending: 'guesstimated', as reported by the Office of Management and Budget and projected by usgovernmentspending.com.
Tab-delimited Table
<table> Table
Suggested Video: Spending 101
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: | $37,889,756,572,760.44 | Debt 2/2020: | $23,409,959,150,243.63 |
Site Search
Spending 101
Take a course in government spending:
Spending |
Federal Debt |
Revenue
Defense |
Welfare |
Healthcare |
Education
Debt History |
Entitlements |
Deficits
State Spending |
State Taxes |
State Debt
It’s free!
Win Cash for Bugs
File a valid bug report and get a $5 Amazon Gift Certificate.
Get the Books
 Price: $0.99 Or download for free. |
 From usgovernment spending.com Price: $1.99 |
 Life after liberalism Price: $0.99 Or download for free. |
Data Sources for 2026:
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
CBO Long Term Budget Outlook for 2025
On March 27, 2025 the Congressional Budget Office released its annual Long Term Budget Outlook for 2025, which projects federal spending and revenue out to 2055. As before, the data for the CBO study shows that federal health-care programs and interest costs will eat the budget, with federal spending exceeding 25 percent GDP by the 2040s while federal revenue stays a little over 19 percent GDP.
UsGovernmentspending.com has updated its chart of the CBO Long Term Budget Outlook here. You can download the data and also view CBO Long Term Budget Outlooks going back to 1999.
On November 22, 2025 usgovernmentspending.com updated FY2025 state revenue with quarterly tax data released by the US Ce ...
The US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released its Gross State Product (GSP) data for 2024 on March 29, 2025.Usgovernmen ...
> blog
Budget News
President’s FY 2025 Budget Release Scheduled for March 11
Although the FY 2024 appropriations process is not yet resolved
Biden to Release Budget March 9
will press McCarthy On Default Risk - Bloomberg
Biden to Release 2023 Budget Request on March 28
how the administration expects to spend money for priorities including aid to Ukraine and the continuing effort to fight the coronavirus pandemic, as well as legislative proposals such as increased funding for community policing programs, cancer research, and mental health education.
> archive
Spend Links
us numbers • us budget • custom chart • deficit/gdp • spend/gdp • debt/gdp • us gdp • us real gdp • state gdp • breakdown • federal • state • local • 2024 • 2025 • 2026 • california • texas
