Federal Deficit Trends Over Time

Since the government spent $6.55 T and collected $3.42 T in 2020, the deficit for the year was $3.13 T.

Since 2001, the U.S. has experienced a deficit each year. Beginning in 2016, increases in spending on Social Security, health care, and interest on federal debt have outpaced the growth of federal revenue.

In 2020, federal spending increased in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Visit our The Federal Response to COVID-19 analysis to learn more.

If you are interested in learning more and seeing how the federal spending and debt have changed over time, you can view the Historical Debt Outstanding dataset to see outstanding debt from 1789 to the current year.

What does it mean when there is a surplus, balanced budget, and deficit?

A surplus occurs when the government collects more money than it spends. The last surplus for the federal government was in 2001.

A balanced budget occurs when the amount the government spends equals the amount the government collects. Sometimes the term balanced budget is used more broadly to refer to instances where there is no deficit.

A deficit occurs when the government spends more money than it collects. The federal government has run deficits for the last 19 years.

How does the deficit in the United States compare to other countries?

When you are done here, see how the U.S. deficit compares to other countries.

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Data Sources and Methodology

The visualization was created using the Monthly Treasury Statement (MTS) as the data source for federal government revenue and spending of the United States.

Download Source Data

federal_deficit_trends.csv

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