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What is the Total US Government Spending?

In FY 2026, total US government spending, federal, state, and local, was “guesstimated” to be $13.18 trillion, with federal $7.4 trillion; state $3.62 trillion; local $3.41 trillion.

National Spending Analysis  

 

This page shows the current trends in US national spending. Also see charts on US spending history. See also: Social Security Spending and Medicare Spending
 

Recent US Total Government Spending

Recent Total Government Spending

Chart S.01t: Recent Total Government Spending

Total US Government Spending, federal, state and local, was increased briskly, year on year, in the aftermath of the Great Recession, then held at $6 trillion until 2015. During the COVID pandemic, spending increased sharply to $10.1 trillion in 2021.

Estimated spending for 2026 was $13.18 trillion.

Recent Total Spending as Pct GDP<br><br> 

Chart S.02t: Recent Total Spending as Pct GDP

 

Viewed from a GDP perspective, total government spending increased from 33 percent GDP in the mid 2000s and then jumped to 41 percent GDP in the Great Recession. But in the subsequent economic recovery total government spending steadily declined down to 35.4 percent GDP in 2015. During the COVID pandemic, spending increased sharply to 46 percent of GDP in 2020.

Estimated spending for 2026 was 43.1 percent GDP.

Numbers — Charts:

History:

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US Total Government Spending Since 1900

Total Spending as Percent GDP

Chart S.03t: Total Spending as Percent GDP

Government spending at the start of the 20th century was less than 7 percent of GDP. It vaulted to almost 30 percent of GDP by the end of World War I, and then settled down to 10 percent of GDP in the 1920s. In the 1930s spending doubled to 20 percent of GDP. Defense spending in World War II drove overall government spending over 50 percent of GDP before declining to 22 percent of GDP in the late 1940s. The 1950s began a steady spending increase to about 36 percent of GDP by 1982. In the 1990s and 2000s government spending stayed about constant at 33-35 percent of GDP. In the aftermath of the Crash of 2008 spending jogged up to 40 percent of GDP before declining to about 35 percent GDP in the 2010s. In the COVID pandemic, spending increased sharply to 46 percent of GDP in 2020.

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See FEDERAL BUDGET breakdown and estimated vs. actual.

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ENTITLEMENT SPENDING history.

See BAR CHARTS of spending, debt.

Check STATE spending: CA NY TX FL and compare.

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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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Spending | Federal Debt | Revenue | Defense | Welfare | Healthcare | Education
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Where you go to get facts about government.

Prepared by Christopher Chantrill.
email: chrischantrill@gmail.com

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Gross Federal Debt

Debt Now:  $40,387,508,795,231.67
Debt 2/2020:$23,409,959,150,243.63

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Data Sources for 2022_2031:

Sources for 2022:

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 2031:

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 Budget Deficit, Receipts, Outlays for FY 2026

On October 15, 2026, the US Treasury reported in its Monthly Treasury Statement (and xlsx) for September that the federal deficit for FY 2025 ending September 30, 2026, was $1,99 billion. Here are the numbers, including total receipts, total outlays, and deficit compared with the numbers projected in the FY 2026 federal budget published in February 2025:

Federal Finances
FY 2026 Outcomes
Budget
billions
Outcome
billions
Receipts $5,873    $5,403
Outlays$7,419$7,396
Deficit$1,547$1,993

The Monthly Treasury Statement includes "Table 4: Receipts of the United States Government, September 2026 and Other Periods." This table of receipts by source is used for usgovernmentspending.com to post details of federal receipt actuals for FY 2025. usdgovernmentspending.com obtains the data for outlays and receipts from apis at fiscaldata.treasury.gov.


This MTS report on FY 2026 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 2025 and Other Periods". Subfunction amounts don't get reported until the FY28 budget in February 2027. Until then usgovernmentspending.com estimates actual outlays by "subfunction" for FY 2026 by factoring subfunction budgeted amounts for FY26 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 2026 actuals will not appear on usgovernmentspending.com until the FY 2028 federal budget is published in February 2027 with the actual outlays for FY 2026* in Historical Table 3.2--Outlays by Function and Subfunction.
State and Local Finances for 2024
On August 7, 2026 we updated the state and local spending and revenue for FY 2024 using the new Census Bureau ...

State and Local Finances for 2024 -- First Look
On July 2, 2026 we updated the state and local spending and revenue for FY 2024 using the new Census Bureau S ...

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