Where does federal spending go?

Social Security was the biggest item in fiscal 2026 at $1.67 trillion, out of $7.4 trillion in total. Next came Medicare ($1.07 trillion), Net Interest ($1.05 trillion), Health ($1.03 trillion) and National Defense ($965 billion). Two accounting lines are below zero, so the bars add up to the total.

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Bars are sorted from highest to lowest and start at zero; each one's value is at its end.

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Key facts

Measure: Outlays in US dollars. Written from the data below.

  • Social Security has the highest figure, $1.67T, followed by Medicare ($1.07T) and Net Interest ($1.05T).
  • Undistributed Offsetting Receipts has the lowest figure, -$155B, followed by Commerce and Housing Credit (-$15.5B) and Energy ($21B).

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Source and date

Source
U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data, Monthly Treasury Statement (Table 9)
License
Public domain (U.S. government work)
Data as of
Published

Citation

Chartly. “Where does federal spending go?” Chart. Data: U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data, Monthly Treasury Statement (Table 9), https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datasets/monthly-treasury-statement/ (data as of September 30, 2026). https://chart.ly/charts/federal-spending-by-function (accessed November 4, 2026).

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The data

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The file has the numbers in this table, with the source, license and date. Please credit the source and Chartly. Developers can also get them as JSON (how).

Budget function Outlays in US dollars
Social Security 1,667,097,265,194
Medicare 1,072,626,018,869
Net Interest 1,051,753,969,311
Health 1,025,587,234,576
National Defense 965,160,356,821
Income Security 694,224,470,394
Veterans Benefits and Services 416,204,104,590
Transportation 142,864,249,326
Administration of Justice 109,915,442,479
Education, Training, Employment, and Social Services 107,551,403,356
Community and Regional Development 62,429,584,486
Natural Resources and Environment 57,098,136,028
Agriculture 52,566,167,744
International Affairs 48,014,568,338
General Science, Space, and Technology 39,876,759,074
General Government 32,343,463,388
Energy 20,970,860,009
Commerce and Housing Credit -15,465,292,146
Undistributed Offsetting Receipts -155,018,778,526

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