{"chart":{"slug":"interest-rate-on-us-debt","title":"What interest rate does the US government pay on its debt?","takeaway":"The average interest rate on all federal debt was 3.53% at the end of fiscal 2026, compared with a low of 1.61% in 2021 and 6.06% in 2001, when this Treasury series begins.","topic":"Federal budget","chart_type":"line","ranking":false,"x_label":"Fiscal year","y_label":"Average interest rate (%)","unit":"percent","points_count":26,"source":{"name":"U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data, Average Interest Rates on U.S. Treasury Securities","url":"https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datasets/average-interest-rates-treasury-securities/"},"license":{"name":"Public domain (U.S. government work)","url":"https://www.usa.gov/government-copyright"},"data_as_of":"2026-09-30","updated_at":"2026-10-17T18:50:41.138Z","url":"https://chart.ly/charts/interest-rate-on-us-debt","api_url":"https://chart.ly/api/v1/charts/interest-rate-on-us-debt","csv_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/interest-rate-on-us-debt/data.csv","image_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/interest-rate-on-us-debt/image.png","embed_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/interest-rate-on-us-debt/embed","credit":"U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data, Average Interest Rates on U.S. Treasury Securities, via Chartly (https://chart.ly/charts/interest-rate-on-us-debt)","credit_html":"U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data, Average Interest Rates on U.S. Treasury Securities, via \u003ca href=\"https://chart.ly/charts/interest-rate-on-us-debt\"\u003eChartly\u003c/a\u003e","average_label":null,"zero_axis":true,"data":[{"label":"2001","value":6.064},{"label":"2002","value":5.298},{"label":"2003","value":4.654},{"label":"2004","value":4.517},{"label":"2005","value":4.704},{"label":"2006","value":5.022},{"label":"2007","value":5.009},{"label":"2008","value":4.188},{"label":"2009","value":3.347},{"label":"2010","value":3.052},{"label":"2011","value":2.886},{"label":"2012","value":2.588},{"label":"2013","value":2.43},{"label":"2014","value":2.401},{"label":"2015","value":2.35},{"label":"2016","value":2.232},{"label":"2017","value":2.284},{"label":"2018","value":2.494},{"label":"2019","value":2.492},{"label":"2020","value":1.772},{"label":"2021","value":1.605},{"label":"2022","value":2.07},{"label":"2023","value":2.97},{"label":"2024","value":3.324},{"label":"2025","value":3.363},{"label":"2026","value":3.531}],"annotations":[]},"docs":"https://chart.ly/developers","terms":"Free to use with credit: wherever you show or quote a chart's data, name Chartly with a link to that chart's url (each chart's credit line does both) and credit its source as its license asks.","credit":"U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data, Average Interest Rates on U.S. Treasury Securities, via Chartly (https://chart.ly/charts/interest-rate-on-us-debt)"}