US State Spending on Interest Since 1900

State government spending on interest at the start of the 20th century was less than 0.05 percent of GDP and remained low until the 1920s. In the 1920s state spending on interest began a sharp increase, crossing 0.1 percent GDP in 1930 and peaking at 0.2 percent GDP at the bottom of the Great Depression in 1933. For the rest of the 1930s and through World War II state spending on interest declined sharply, bottoming out at 0.04 percent GDP in the early 1950s.

Starting in 1954 state spending on interest began a sustained increase, hitting 0.1 percent GDP in 1960, 0.2 percent GDP in 1974, 0.3 percent GDP in 1983 and peaking at 0.38 percent GDP in 1987.

In the 1990s and 2000s, state spending on interest declined, down to 0.26 percent GDP in 2005, and then increasing in the Great Recession to 0.31 percent GDP in 2009.

In the 2010s state spending on interest has steadily declined, down to 0.21 percent GDP in 2020.