How big is the US national debt?

At the end of fiscal year 2025 the debt was $37.6 trillion, almost four times the $10.0 trillion of 2008. In 1835 it had been paid down to about $34,000. Each point is the debt on the last day of that fiscal year (since 1977, September 30), in dollars of the day, not adjusted for inflation.

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Key facts

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

  • The latest figure, for 2026, is $40.2T.
  • That is 565,319 times the 1790 figure, $71.1M.
  • It is the highest in the data, which go back to 1790.
  • The lowest was $33,733 in 1835.

Source and date

Source
U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data, Historical Debt Outstanding
License
Public domain (U.S. government work)
Data as of
Published

Citation

Chartly. “How big is the US national debt?” Chart. Data: U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data, Historical Debt Outstanding, https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datasets/historical-debt-outstanding/ (data as of September 30, 2026). https://chart.ly/charts/us-national-debt (accessed October 15, 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.

Fiscal year Debt in US dollars
1790 71,060,509
1791 75,463,477
1792 77,227,925
1793 80,358,634
1794 78,427,405
1795 80,747,587
1796 83,762,172
1797 82,064,479
1798 79,228,529
1799 78,408,670
1800 82,976,294
1801 83,038,051
1802 80,712,632
1803 77,054,686
1804 86,427,121
1805 82,312,151
1806 75,723,271
1807 69,218,399
1808 65,196,318
1809 57,023,192
1810 53,173,218
1811 48,005,588
1812 45,209,738
1813 55,962,828
1814 81,487,846
1815 99,833,660
1816 127,334,934
1817 123,491,965
1818 103,466,634
1819 95,529,648
1820 91,015,566
1821 89,987,428
1822 93,546,677
1823 90,875,877
1824 90,269,778
1825 83,788,433
1826 81,054,060
1827 73,987,357
1828 67,475,044
1829 58,421,414
1830 48,565,407
1831 39,123,192
1832 24,322,235
1833 7,001,699
1834 4,760,082
1835 33,733
1836 37,513
1837 336,958
1838 3,308,124
1839 10,434,221
1840 3,573,344
1841 5,250,876
1842 13,594,481
1843 32,742,922
1844 23,461,653
1845 15,925,303
1846 15,550,203
1847 38,826,535
1848 47,044,862
1849 63,061,859
1850 63,452,774
1851 68,304,796
1852 66,199,342
1853 59,803,118
1854 42,242,222
1855 35,586,957
1856 31,972,538
1857 28,699,832
1858 44,911,881
1859 58,496,838
1860 64,842,288
1861 90,580,874
1862 524,176,412
1863 1,119,772,139
1864 1,815,784,371
1865 2,680,647,870
1866 2,773,236,174
1867 2,678,126,104
1868 2,611,687,851
1869 2,588,452,214
1870 2,480,672,428
1871 2,353,211,332
1872 2,253,251,329
1873 2,234,482,993
1874 2,251,690,468
1875 2,232,284,532
1876 2,180,395,067
1877 2,205,301,392
1878 2,256,205,893
1879 2,349,567,482
1880 2,120,415,371
1881 2,069,013,570
1882 1,918,312,994
1883 1,884,171,728
1884 1,830,528,924
1885 1,863,964,873
1886 1,775,063,014
1887 1,657,602,593
1888 1,692,858,985
1889 1,619,052,922
1890 1,552,140,205
1891 1,545,996,592
1892 1,588,464,145
1893 1,545,985,686
1894 1,632,253,637
1895 1,676,120,983
1896 1,769,840,323
1897 1,817,672,666
1898 1,796,531,996
1899 1,991,927,307
1900 2,136,961,092
1901 2,143,326,934
1902 2,158,610,446
1903 2,202,464,782
1904 2,264,003,585
1905 2,274,615,064
1906 2,337,161,839
1907 2,457,188,062
1908 2,626,806,272
1909 2,639,546,241
1910 2,652,665,838
1911 2,765,600,607
1912 2,868,373,874
1913 2,916,204,914
1914 2,912,499,269
1915 3,058,136,873
1916 3,609,244,262
1917 5,717,770,280
1918 14,592,161,414
1919 27,390,970,113
1920 25,952,456,406
1921 23,977,450,553
1922 22,963,381,708
1923 22,349,707,365
1924 21,250,812,989
1925 20,516,193,888
1926 19,643,216,315
1927 18,511,906,932
1928 17,604,293,201
1929 16,931,088,484
1930 16,185,309,831
1931 16,801,281,492
1932 19,487,002,444
1933 22,538,672,560
1934 27,053,141,414
1935 28,700,892,625
1936 33,778,543,494
1937 36,424,613,732
1938 37,164,740,315
1939 40,439,532,411
1940 42,967,531,038
1941 48,961,443,536
1942 72,422,445,116
1943 136,696,090,330
1944 201,003,387,221
1945 258,682,187,410
1946 269,422,099,173
1947 258,286,383,109
1948 252,292,246,513
1949 252,770,359,860
1950 257,357,352,351
1951 255,221,976,815
1952 259,105,178,785
1953 266,071,061,639
1954 271,259,599,108
1955 274,374,222,803
1956 272,750,813,649
1957 270,527,171,896
1958 276,343,217,746
1959 284,705,907,078
1960 286,330,760,848
1961 288,970,938,610
1962 298,200,822,721
1963 305,859,632,996
1964 311,712,899,257
1965 317,273,898,984
1966 319,907,087,795
1967 326,220,937,795
1968 347,578,406,426
1969 353,720,253,841
1970 370,918,706,950
1971 398,129,744,456
1972 427,260,460,941
1973 458,141,605,312
1974 475,059,815,732
1975 533,189,000,000
1976 620,433,000,000
1977 698,840,000,000
1978 771,544,000,000
1979 826,519,000,000
1980 907,701,000,000
1981 997,855,000,000
1982 1,142,034,000,000
1983 1,377,210,000,000
1984 1,572,266,000,000
1985 1,823,103,000,000
1986 2,125,302,616,658
1987 2,350,276,890,953
1988 2,602,337,712,041
1989 2,857,430,960,187
1990 3,233,313,451,777
1991 3,665,303,351,697
1992 4,064,620,655,522
1993 4,411,488,883,139
1994 4,692,749,910,013
1995 4,973,982,900,709
1996 5,224,810,939,136
1997 5,413,146,011,397
1998 5,526,193,008,898
1999 5,656,270,901,615
2000 5,674,178,209,887
2001 5,807,463,412,200
2002 6,228,235,965,597
2003 6,783,231,062,744
2004 7,379,052,696,330
2005 7,932,709,661,724
2006 8,506,973,899,215
2007 9,007,653,372,262
2008 10,024,724,896,912
2009 11,909,829,003,512
2010 13,561,623,030,892
2011 14,790,340,328,557
2012 16,066,241,407,386
2013 16,738,183,526,697
2014 17,824,071,380,734
2015 18,150,617,666,484
2016 19,573,444,713,937
2017 20,244,900,016,054
2018 21,516,058,183,180
2019 22,719,401,753,434
2020 26,945,391,194,615
2021 28,428,918,570,049
2022 30,928,911,613,307
2023 33,167,334,044,723
2024 35,464,673,929,172
2025 37,637,553,494,936
2026 40,171,825,101,340

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