vs Last Month
+$200B
Monthly debt accumulation continues.
Total Outstanding · Daily
U.S. Federal Debt
$36.85T
+$0.20Tvs. last month
Past 12 months$34.7T – $36.85T
vs Last Year+$2.10T
Per Resident~$110K
Debt/GDP~123%
Federal debt at $36.85T — fresh all-time high. Growing about $150B per month. At this pace, $40T arrives in mid-2028 and $50T by 2032.
Historical trend
Daily total debt outstanding.
Source: FRED · GFDEBTN
The long view: since 1966
From $270B to $36.85T — 137× in 60 years.
ATH $36.85T · May 2026
$1T crossed Oct 1981
Today $36.85T
How today stacks up
vs Last Year
+$2.10T
+6% YoY growth in debt.
5-Year Average
$32.50T
Today is $4.35T above the 5-yr mean.
Per Resident
~$110K
$36.85T / ~335M people.
Use this number
Tools for fiscal context.
About Federal Debt Outstanding
Federal Debt Outstanding is the total amount the U.S. government owes — Treasury bills, notes, bonds, and intra-governmental holdings (like the Social Security Trust Fund). Today's $36.85T includes both publicly-held debt (~$29T) and intra-governmental debt (~$7.85T). Per U.S. resident, that's roughly $110,000 in federal debt per person.
Why this number matters more every year
Federal debt has grown faster than GDP for most of the past 30 years. The debt-to-GDP ratio is now ~123% — well above the 60% that economists generally consider sustainable. Annual interest payments alone now exceed $1.2T — more than defense spending. As interest rates have risen, that line item is the fastest-growing in the federal budget. Whether this matters depends on your time horizon: nobody is forcing repayment, but rising interest costs crowd out other spending.
Reading today's level
Debt has roughly tripled since 2008 ($10.7T → $36.85T) and doubled since 2014. The COVID response added $7T in just two years (2020–21). The current $36.85T is a fresh all-time high, with monthly growth of ~$150B. At this pace, total debt will cross $40T by mid-2028 — and absent fiscal-policy changes, $50T by 2032.
Related trackers
Other live numbers that move with — or against — this one.
Frequently asked
What this number means, and what it doesn't.
Gross debt (this number, $36.85T) includes all federal debt. Public debt excludes intra-governmental holdings — debt the government owes itself, like the Social Security Trust Fund's holdings of Treasury bonds. Public debt is currently around $29T.
Roughly: 25% Federal Reserve, 18% Social Security and other intra-government, 30% domestic private (banks, mutual funds, insurance, retirement accounts), 25% foreign (Japan, China, UK are the largest holders). The Fed's share peaked above 30% in 2022 and has fallen with QT.
By most academic frameworks (debt-to-GDP, interest cost as % of revenue), no. Federal debt is 123% of GDP; interest costs are now 18% of federal revenue (highest since the 1980s). But the U.S. has the world's reserve currency and deepest capital market, which has allowed sustained borrowing at low rates. The question is when (not if) that advantage erodes.
$1T: October 1981 · $10T: September 2008 (post-Lehman) · $20T: September 2017 · $30T: February 2022 · $36T: April 2025. The pace from $10T to $30T took 14 years; the pace from $30T to $36T took just 3 years.
Methodology
Source
Pulled from FRED · GFDEBTN and cached on the EvvyTools server.
Update schedule
Refreshed automatically by our cron whenever the upstream source publishes a new value. Historical values are not revised after publication.
How we compute
Display value is the raw published number, unrounded. Comparison stats use the closest available reference date. We never edit the underlying data.