DeficitFacts.com

How has the US budget deficit changed over time?

The federal budget deficit increased
2.9%of GDP
during 2017–2024
3.4% of GDP in 2017
6.4% of GDP in 2024

The deficit is how much the government spends, minus what it collects in taxes.When spending is higher than revenue, this gap adds to our national debt.

Here's how they changed from 2017 to 2024:

Deficit
=
Spending
−
Revenue
+ 2.9%
+ 2.9%
− 0.1%
of GDP
of GDP
of GDP
🏛️ Spending
Increased 2.9% of GDP
20.6% in 2017
23.4% in 2024

How did spending change?

  • Interest costs increased by 1.7% of GDP
  • Other spending increased by 1.2%
💰 Revenue
Decreased 0.1% of GDP
17.1% in 2017
17.1% in 2024

How did revenue change?

  • 3 tax changes increased the deficit
  • 1 tax change reduced the deficit

Revenue was impacted by 1 recession

Sources
I aim for all data to be accurate and non-partisan. If you find any errors, please let me know

Data

  • Deficit, spending, and revenue data are from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
  • You can find the Jan 2025 Historical Budget Data file from the CBO here, or extracted to CSV here

Content

  • Descriptions of spending categories, recessions, and tax policies were generated using AI models from OpenAI and Anthropic
  • For transparency, all AI prompts and responses are published here

Notes

  • Years refer to federal fiscal years, which run from Oct 1 through Sep 30 (e.g., FY 2024 began on Oct 1, 2023)