{"chart":{"slug":"us-debt-as-share-of-gdp","title":"How big is the federal debt compared with the economy?","takeaway":"At the end of fiscal 2025 the federal debt was 124% of a year's GDP, everything the U.S. economy produces in a year. It fell from 96% in 1948 to a low of 32% in 1981, passed 100% in 2013 and jumped to 126% in 2020. This is total debt, including what the government owes its own trust funds, divided by GDP over the same fiscal year; it starts in 1948 because BEA's quarterly GDP starts in 1947, and recent GDP figures are revised.","topic":"Federal budget","chart_type":"line","ranking":false,"x_label":"Fiscal year","y_label":"Debt as % of GDP","unit":"percent","points_count":78,"source":{"name":"U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data, Historical Debt Outstanding; GDP from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (NIPA Table 1.1.5)","url":"https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datasets/historical-debt-outstanding/"},"license":{"name":"Public domain (U.S. government work)","url":"https://www.usa.gov/government-copyright"},"data_as_of":"2025-09-30","updated_at":"2026-10-18T16:31:00.048Z","url":"https://chart.ly/charts/us-debt-as-share-of-gdp","api_url":"https://chart.ly/api/v1/charts/us-debt-as-share-of-gdp","csv_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/us-debt-as-share-of-gdp/data.csv","image_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/us-debt-as-share-of-gdp/image.png","embed_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/us-debt-as-share-of-gdp/embed","credit":"U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data, Historical Debt Outstanding; GDP from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (NIPA Table 1.1.5), via Chartly (https://chart.ly/charts/us-debt-as-share-of-gdp)","credit_html":"U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data, Historical Debt Outstanding; GDP from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (NIPA Table 1.1.5), via \u003ca href=\"https://chart.ly/charts/us-debt-as-share-of-gdp\"\u003eChartly\u003c/a\u003e","average_label":null,"zero_axis":true,"data":[{"label":"1948","value":96.3},{"label":"1949","value":91.4},{"label":"1950","value":92.3},{"label":"1951","value":78.0},{"label":"1952","value":72.6},{"label":"1953","value":69.6},{"label":"1954","value":70.1},{"label":"1955","value":67.5},{"label":"1956","value":62.2},{"label":"1957","value":58.4},{"label":"1958","value":58.4},{"label":"1959","value":56.4},{"label":"1960","value":53.6},{"label":"1961","value":52.9},{"label":"1962","value":50.9},{"label":"1963","value":49.5},{"label":"1964","value":47.1},{"label":"1965","value":44.7},{"label":"1966","value":41.0},{"label":"1967","value":39.0},{"label":"1968","value":38.7},{"label":"1969","value":36.1},{"label":"1970","value":35.4},{"label":"1971","value":35.7},{"label":"1972","value":35.1},{"label":"1973","value":33.9},{"label":"1974","value":32.0},{"label":"1975","value":33.2},{"label":"1976","value":34.7},{"label":"1977","value":34.5},{"label":"1978","value":33.9},{"label":"1979","value":32.2},{"label":"1980","value":32.5},{"label":"1981","value":31.8},{"label":"1982","value":34.5},{"label":"1983","value":38.9},{"label":"1984","value":39.8},{"label":"1985","value":42.7},{"label":"1986","value":47.0},{"label":"1987","value":49.3},{"label":"1988","value":50.6},{"label":"1989","value":51.4},{"label":"1990","value":54.8},{"label":"1991","value":60.2},{"label":"1992","value":63.3},{"label":"1993","value":65.1},{"label":"1994","value":65.4},{"label":"1995","value":65.8},{"label":"1996","value":65.7},{"label":"1997","value":64.1},{"label":"1998","value":61.9},{"label":"1999","value":59.7},{"label":"2000","value":56.1},{"label":"2001","value":55.2},{"label":"2002","value":57.5},{"label":"2003","value":60.1},{"label":"2004","value":61.3},{"label":"2005","value":61.8},{"label":"2006","value":62.4},{"label":"2007","value":63.0},{"label":"2008","value":67.8},{"label":"2009","value":82.3},{"label":"2010","value":91.1},{"label":"2011","value":95.6},{"label":"2012","value":99.7},{"label":"2013","value":100.3},{"label":"2014","value":102.3},{"label":"2015","value":99.9},{"label":"2016","value":105.0},{"label":"2017","value":104.5},{"label":"2018","value":105.3},{"label":"2019","value":106.7},{"label":"2020","value":126.3},{"label":"2021","value":123.3},{"label":"2022","value":120.9},{"label":"2023","value":121.0},{"label":"2024","value":122.2},{"label":"2025","value":123.5}],"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, Historical Debt Outstanding; GDP from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (NIPA Table 1.1.5), via Chartly (https://chart.ly/charts/us-debt-as-share-of-gdp)"}