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U.S. Federal Debt Since 1790
Federal debt held by the public as a share of GDP, %
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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
- U.S. Federal Debt Held by the Public, % of GDP (since 1790)as “Debt held by the public”latest 2025-09-30
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.