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How Big Is the US National Debt? · Just the Facts

USAFacts · 12:42 — this dashboard is built from the video's transcript. Open it to compare:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF47YBIgOFQ

The US National Debt — explorable

It starts each year with a budget. Spend more than you take in and the gap — the deficit — is borrowed and piled onto the debt (≈$38T). Drive the budget below and the years forward; the cost of interest, the debt-to-GDP ratio, and the room left under the ceiling all follow.

The engine · budget → deficit → debt

FY2024 actuals to start. Drag the bars (or the numbers) and the years slider; everything downstream uses the projected debt.

What interest costs

Interest = debt × the average rate it's borrowed at. Drag the rate; watch it pass defense and Medicare (it was the 3rd-largest line in 2024).

Debt-to-GDP

Public debt against the size of the economy — like a mortgage vs your income. Drag GDP.

The debt ceiling

Congress's legal cap. Raised/revised 78× since 1960; the 2025 bill set it to $41.1T.

Who owns it

2024 split. Tap a slice to drill in.

230 years of debt

Nominal (not inflation-adjusted), log scale — from Hamilton's $71M to ~$38T. Drag the marker.

Just the facts (from the video)

Debt is the running total of every yearly deficit (plus interest), minus surpluses. The US ran a deficit in 92 of the last 125 years.
FY2024: took in $4.9T, spent $6.7T → a $1.8T deficit. Treasury borrows via bills, notes & bonds (you can buy at treasurydirect.gov).
2024 interest: $880B — the 3rd-largest federal expenditure, above Medicare and defense; $269B of it went abroad.
Make-up (2024): $28.86T held by the public + $7.36T intragovernmental (what the government owes itself, e.g. Social Security).
Of public debt: ~70% American, ~30% foreign. Top foreign holders: Japan > China > UK — together 8.8% (≈$2.5T).
Debt-to-GDP (public): 95.9% in 2024, up from 72.4% a decade earlier — up in all but 15 of the last 50 years.

Built from the cited USAFacts video's transcript for side-by-side comparison. Figures are the video's (nominal, approximate); the forward projection is a simple deficit×years extrapolation (real debt also compounds via interest and varies with rates) — illustrative, not a forecast. Not financial advice.