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U.S. Federal Debt Since 1790

Federal debt held by the public as a share of GDP, %

99.4% in 2025the highest since 1946+69.8 pp since 1790

Plays the chart through its history. Pauses are where the data set a record or moved most.

Continuation · the recent trend, flattening · 3 years

Dashed: the projection from the latest reading. Shaded: the range about two in three outcomes land in. A projection, not a promise.

Fiscal years, from the Congressional Budget Office’s historical series.

More than two centuries of U.S. borrowing relative to the size of the economy. The peaks mark wars and deep recessions; the long rise since the 2000s happened mostly outside wartime.

What this chart reads

Sources

U.S. Federal Debt Held by the Public, % of GDP (since 1790). Source: Congressional Budget Office. CBO publications are works of the U.S. Government and in the public domain.

Charts are drawn from Palanor's signal library and recomputed from source data on every view. Transformations (changes, indexing, year-on-year rates) are Palanor's.

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