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What is the Total US Government Spending?

In FY 2025, total US government spending, federal, state, and local, was “guesstimated” to be $12.50 trillion, with federal $7.01 trillion; state $3.43 trillion; local $3.23 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 2025 was $12.50 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 2025 was 40.6 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.

Suggested Video: Spending 101

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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.

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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.

Spending 101 Courses

Spending | Federal Debt | Revenue | Defense | Welfare | Healthcare | Education
Debt History | Entitlements | Deficits | State Spending | State Taxes | State Debt


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usgovernmentspending.com.

Where you go to get facts about government.

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

Click the image on the right to buy usgovernmentspending.com’s ebook.
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Gross Federal Debt

Debt Now:  $39,204,974,715,248.65
Debt 2/2020:$23,409,959,150,243.63

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Data Sources for 2021_2031:

Sources for 2021:

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.

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Gross State Product for 2025

The US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released its Gross State Product (GSP) data for 2025 on April 9, 2026.

Usgovernmentspending.com has updated its individual state GSPs for 2025 for each state using the projected national GDP numbers from Table 10.1 in the Historical Tables for the Federal FY2027 Budget and the historical GDP data series from the BEA as a baseline.

Process:

  1. Click on link.
  2. Click on "Interactive Data" link
  3. Click on "Interactive Tables: GDP by State" link
  4. Click on "Annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by State"
  5. Click on "Summary Tables for GDP, personal income, and related data."
  6. Click on "SASUMMARY"
  7. Area: Select "All Areas"
  8. Statistic: Select "Real GDP..." and "Gross domestic product (GDP)"
  9. Click on Next Step button
  10. Time Period: Select "All Years"
  11. Click on Next Step button
  12. Click on Download button
  13. Select CSV 
Federal Budget for FY27 Released
On April 4, 2026, we updated usgovernmentspending.com with the numbers from the Public Budget Database in the Budget of the United ...

US GDP for 2025 Released
On March 15, 2026 usgovernmentspending.com updated its GDP series with the latest data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis ...

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