Major Federal Grant Spending Categories

The largest federal grant spending category is Medicaid grants to the states, amounting to over one percent of GDP in 2007. The next highest is welfare, at about 0.5 percent of GDP in 2007. Then education, transportation, and other categories. During the COVID years, economic assistance, reaching almost one percent of GDP in 2022, was provided with General Government grants.

The trend in federal grants is upward, as a percent of GDP, with Medicaid grants reaching 2 percent of GDP in 2022.

US Federal Grant Spending Since 1962

Federal grant spending began the 1960s at 1.3 percent GDP, but then surged in the 1970s to over 3 percent GDP. In the 1980s grant spending declined to 2 percent GDP, but in the decades since has steadily increased, hitting 3 percent GDP in 2003, 3.9 percent GDP in 2011, and 4.7 percent GDP during COVID in 2022.

Suggested Video: All About Debt

Top Debt Requests:

Find DEFICIT stats and history.

US BUDGET overview and pie chart.

Find NATIONAL DEBT today.

See FEDERAL BUDGET breakdown and estimated vs. actual.

See BAR CHARTS of debt, debt.

Check STATE debt: CA NY TX FL and compare.

See DEBT ANALYSIS briefing.

See DEBT HISTORY briefing.

Take a COURSE at Spending 101.

Make your own CUSTOM CHART.

Debt Data Sources

Debt data is from official government sources.

• Federal debt data since 1962 comes from the president’s budget.
  
• Federal debt for 1940-1961 comes from the president’s budget.
  
• Federal debt for 1914-1939 comes from the US Treasury and St. Louis Fed.
  
• Federal debt before 1914 comes from the US Treasury
  
• All other debt data comes from the US Census Bureau.

Gross Domestic Product data comes from US Bureau of Economic Analysis and measuringworth.com.

Detailed table of debt data sources here.

Federal debt data begins in 1792.

State and local debt data begins in 1820.

State and local debt data for individual states begins in 1957.

More Topics