How much did the federal government borrow?

A deficit means the government spent more than it took in that budget year (October to September) and borrowed the difference. That borrowing adds to the debt. Debt held by the public is what the government owes to lenders outside it, such as people, companies, other countries and the Federal Reserve.

What the charts measure: Federal surplus or deficit, % of GDP, OMB; Federal debt held by the public, end of fiscal year, % of GDP, OMB; Federal debt held by the public, end of fiscal year, millions of dollars, OMB.

A budget year runs from October to September; OMB calls it the fiscal year and names it by the year it ends in. Each term counts the four budget years that end in its first four calendar years. The top bar is their average, and the change under it is the last year minus the year before the term. The bottom bar is the debt at the end of the term’s last budget year minus the debt at the end of the year before the term. For the term still running, the last year is the latest one OMB has published. The row under the bottom chart gives the same debt in dollars, in trillions, on the same two dates. These are current dollars, not adjusted for price rises.

OMB’s yearly tables start in 1930 for the deficit and in 1940 for the debt.

Recessions

The recession months follow the dates of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the group that dates US recessions. NBER counts a recession from the month after the economy’s high point (the peak) through the month of its low point (the trough). Each month counts for the term it falls in, so a recession that runs across two terms counts in both, each with its own months. Source: National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), Business Cycle Dating Committee.

Each term’s first budget year began in October, before the president took office, on a budget plan sent to Congress the winter before. The table below shows who sent each plan and who signed that year’s full-year spending law. The table after it gives the same count with each term’s budget years moved one year later.

The first budget year of each term

A budget year runs from October to September and is named by the year it ends in. By law, the president’s budget plan is due to Congress by the first Monday in February, for the budget year that starts in October. So a new president’s first budget year was planned by the president in office the winter before, and it was already running on the day the new term began. The first year built on the new president’s own plan starts in October of the first year in office. Congress writes the spending laws, and the president signs or vetoes them. The law listed is the one that set spending for the full budget year.

The same count, one budget year later

A term’s first budget year was planned by the president in office the winter before (see the table above). This second count moves each term’s four budget years one year later. It starts in October of the first year in office and ends in the September after the term ends, so each year it counts is one whose budget plan the term’s own president sent. The table puts it beside the count in the chart, for every term. Under each name are the budget years it counts. For the term still running, no budget year after its first has ended yet.

How others count it

Congress has its own budget office, which keeps its own yearly tables (Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Historical Budget Data). It uses another estimate of the size of the economy, so its shares can differ slightly from OMB’s. In the change columns, a plus means the deficit got smaller or the surplus got bigger. A minus means the opposite.

Interest is the debt’s yearly cost, shown here as a share of what the government took in. It moves with the amount of debt and with interest rates.

Treasury’s daily count

Treasury counts this debt every business day. Its count is in dollars, and its figures for the debt held by the public cover the budget years 1997 to 2026. The tables above use shares of the economy. Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service, Fiscal Data (Debt to the Penny).

Revisions

OMB publishes its tables again each year, and earlier years can change a little when the size of the economy is revised. The numbers here come from the latest tables.