Annual government expenditure in the United States added up to about 10.07 trillion U.S. dollars in the second quarter of 2024. This is compared to the first quarter of 2009, when this figure stood at 5.53 trillion U.S. dollars.

The total outlays of the United States government added up to about 6.13 trillion U.S. dollars in 2023. This is expected to increase to 6.94 trillion U.S. dollars in 2024, and increase to over eight trillion U.S. dollars by 2029.

Graph and download economic data for Federal Government: Current Expenditures (FGEXPND) from Q1 1947 to Q1 2025 about expenditures, federal, government, GDP, and USA.

Government Spending in the United States decreased to 3990.60 USD Billion in the first quarter of 2025 from 3996.30 USD Billion in the fourth quarter of 2024. This dataset provides the latest reported value for - United States Government Spending - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news.

For the fiscal year of 2025, mandatory government spending is predicted to sum up to about 4.37 trillion U.S. dollars. It consists primarily of benefit programs such as: social security, Medicare, Medicaid, as well as other programs. Discretionary spending consists of spending controlled by lawmakers through annual appropriation acts. In FY 2025 it is proposed at 1.93 trillion U.S. dollars, and is divided into defense and nondefense spending. Spending for net interest is also listed, which consists of the government's interest payments on debt held by the public, offset by interest income the government receives.

Graph and download economic data for Federal Net Outlays as Percent of Gross Domestic Product (FYONGDA188S) from 1929 to 2024 about outlays, federal, Net, GDP, and USA.

Government spending in the United States was last recorded at 39.7 percent of GDP in 2024 . This dataset provides - United States Government Spending To Gdp- actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

Graph and download economic data for Federal government budget surplus or deficit (-) (M318501A027NBEA) from 1952 to 2023 about budget, federal, government, GDP, and USA.

In the fiscal year of 2025, the budget for the Department of Health and Human Services is expected to be about **** trillion U.S. dollars. In comparison, the Small Business Administration is expected to have a budget of **** billion U.S. dollars. United States Federal Government The federal government in the United States consists of three branches of the government: the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. The executive branch is the office of the President of the United States, the legislative branch is the United States Congress, and the judicial branch is the United States Supreme Court.The U.S. cabinet belongs to the executive branch of the government, which belongs to the president and vice president. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is the department of the federal government that provides health services to Americans. The Secretary of the department is Xavier Becerra, who was appointed by current president Joe Biden. Some of the Operating Divisions in this department include the Food and Drug Administration, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health. The outlays for the Department of Health and Human Services have been steadily increasing since 2000. The agency that had the highest amount of spending in this department in 2020 was the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Graph and download economic data for Federal government total expenditures (W019RCQ027SBEA) from Q3 1959 to Q1 2025 about expenditures, federal, government, GDP, and USA.

In 2023, the U.S. government had a budget deficit of 1.69 trillion U.S. dollars. This is compared to 2000, when the government had a budget surplus of 0.24 trillion U.S. dollars.

U.S. Government budget

The government budget is a financial statement that demonstrates the government’s suggested revenues and spending for the financial year. Budget surpluses occur when income exceeds expenditures. Budget deficits occur when spending exceeds income. The budget balance of the U.S. government has fluctuated since 2016, and is expected to decrease slightly by 2026.

Military spending

Defense outlays in the United States amounted to 714 billion U.S. dollars in 2020. It is expected to continue to increase over the next several years. The United States currently has the largest defense budget in the world, and is the largest employer in the world. The military budget funds the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force. The amount of funding that goes towards the Department of Defense is heavily criticized by Democrats in the United States, because they believe that the funding should be more evenly distributed towards other social welfare programs such as public health insurance and education.

The United States federal government budget has allotted around 75 billion dollars toward its 2025 civilian federal agency information technology budget. As leadership and government priorities change, the IT budgets allocated to different departments tend to follow suit. The Department of Energy's IT budget increased significantly by 37 percent compared to the previous year, with 5.5 billion U.S. dollars allocated in FY 2025. Similarly, the IT budget of the Department of Homeland security also increased by 23 percent compared to the previous year, to around 11 billion U.S. dollars for FY 2025. Meanwhile, the Office of Personnel Management saw its IT budget shrink the most among the civilian federal government agencies, decreasing by a staggering 64 percent compared to FY 2024. Since the 2022 federal budget, figures do not include the portion of the budget allocated to the Department of Defense or other classified IT spending. U.S. government budget In the United States, huge shares of government expenditures go towards the Department of Health and Human Services as well as the Social Security Administration. Due in part to the country’s continually increasing budget, the government has run at an annual deficit since 2002, with its 2024 deficit estimated to over be around 1.9 trillion dollars. Cybersecurity budget One of the main facets of the U.S. government IT budget is spending related to cybersecurity. Over 12 billion U.S. dollars have been allocated towards cybersecurity in 2024. The Departments of Homeland Security and Justice have unsurprisingly had the highest cybersecurity budgets across all departments, given the sensitive nature of their work.

The United States recorded a government budget surplus of 27000 USD Million in June of 2025. This dataset provides - United States Government Budget Value - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

The average for 2022 based on 163 countries was 100 billion U.S. dollars. The highest value was in the USA: 3566.53 billion U.S. dollars and the lowest value was in Palau: 0.09 billion U.S. dollars. The indicator is available from 1960 to 2023. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

Graph and download economic data for Government total expenditures (W068RC1A027NBEA) from 1960 to 2024 about expenditures, government, GDP, and USA.

US: Civil Budget R&D: % of Total GBARD data was reported at 51.314 % in 2024. This records an increase from the previous number of 50.925 % for 2023. US: Civil Budget R&D: % of Total GBARD data is updated yearly, averaging 50.906 % from Dec 1981 (Median) to 2024, with 44 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 59.015 % in 2014 and a record low of 30.654 % in 1986. US: Civil Budget R&D: % of Total GBARD data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.OECD.MSTI: Government Budgets for Research and Development: OECD Member: Annual.

For the United States, from 2021 onwards, changes to the US BERD survey questionnaire allowed for more exhaustive identification of acquisition costs for ‘identifiable intangible assets’ used for R&D. This has resulted in a substantial increase in reported R&D capital expenditure within BERD. In the business sector, the funds from the rest of the world previously included in the business-financed BERD, are available separately from 2008. From 2006 onwards, GOVERD includes state government intramural performance (most of which being financed by the federal government and state government own funds). From 2016 onwards, PNPERD data are based on a new R&D performer survey. In the higher education sector all fields of SSH are included from 2003 onwards.

Following a survey of federally-funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) in 2005, it was concluded that FFRDC R&D belongs in the government sector - rather than the sector of the FFRDC administrator, as had been reported in the past. R&D expenditures by FFRDCs were reclassified from the other three R&D performing sectors to the Government sector; previously published data were revised accordingly. Between 2003 and 2004, the method used to classify data by industry has been revised. This particularly affects the ISIC category “wholesale trade” and consequently the BERD for total services.

U.S. R&D data are generally comparable, but there are some areas of underestimation:

1. i) Up to 2008, Government sector R&D performance covers only federal government activities. That by State and local government establishments is excluded;
2. ii) Except for the Government and the Business Enterprise sectors, the R&D data exclude most capital expenditures. For the Business Enterprise sector, depreciation is reported in place of gross capital expenditures up to 2014. Higher education (and national total) data were revised back to 1998 due to an improved methodology that corrects for double-counting of R&D funds passed between institutions.

Breakdown by type of R&D (basic research, applied research, etc.) was also revised back to 1998 in the business enterprise and higher education sectors due to improved estimation procedures.

The methodology for estimating researchers was changed as of 1985. In the Government, Higher Education and PNP sectors the data since then refer to employed doctoral scientists and engineers who report their primary work activity as research, development or the management of R&D, plus, for the Higher Education sector, the number of full-time equivalent graduate students with research assistantships averaging an estimated 50 % of their time engaged in R&D activities. As of 1985 researchers in the Government sector exclude military personnel. As of 1987, Higher education R&D personnel also include those who report their primary work activity as design.

Due to lack of official data for the different employment sectors, the total researchers figure is an OECD estimate up to 2019. Comprehensive reporting of R&D personnel statistics by the United States has resumed with records available since 2020, reflecting the addition of official figures for the number of researchers and total R&D personnel for the higher education sector and the Private non-profit sector; as well as the number of researchers for the government sector. The new data revise downwards previous OECD estimates as the OECD extrapolation methods drawing on historical US data, required to produce a consistent OECD aggregate, appear to have previously overestimated the growth in the number of researchers in the higher education sector.

Pre-production development is excluded from Defence GBARD (in accordance with the Frascati Manual) as of 2000. 2009 GBARD data also includes the one time incremental R&D funding legislated in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Beginning with the 2000 GBARD data, budgets for capital expenditure – “R&D plant” in national terminology - are included. GBARD data for earlier years relate to budgets for current costs only.

Graph and download economic data for Government current expenditures: Federal: Education: Higher (G160701A027NBEA) from 1959 to 2023 about expenditures, education, federal, government, GDP, and USA.

For the 2024 fiscal year, the U.S. federal government allocated around **** billion U.S. dollars for major federal IT investments. The total amount of spending on IT is expected to amount to over *** billion U.S. dollars in 2024, significantly higher than the federal government's IT budget in the previous year.

This table shows the gross outlays, applicable receipts and net outlays for the current month, current fiscal year-to-date and prior fiscal year-to-date by various agency programs accounted for in the budget of the federal government. This table includes total and subtotal rows that should be excluded when aggregating data. Some rows represent elements of the dataset's hierarchy, but are not assigned values. The classification_id for each of these elements can be used as the parent_id for underlying data elements to calculate their implied values. Subtotal rows are available to access this same information.

United States US: Total Government Allocations For R&D (GBARD) data was reported at 210.030 USD bn in 2024. This records an increase from the previous number of 202.189 USD bn for 2023. United States US: Total Government Allocations For R&D (GBARD) data is updated yearly, averaging 93.716 USD bn from Dec 1981 (Median) to 2024, with 44 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 210.030 USD bn in 2024 and a record low of 33.735 USD bn in 1981. United States US: Total Government Allocations For R&D (GBARD) data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.OECD.MSTI: Government Budgets for Research and Development: OECD Member: Annual.

For the United States, from 2021 onwards, changes to the US BERD survey questionnaire allowed for more exhaustive identification of acquisition costs for ‘identifiable intangible assets’ used for R&D. This has resulted in a substantial increase in reported R&D capital expenditure within BERD. In the business sector, the funds from the rest of the world previously included in the business-financed BERD, are available separately from 2008. From 2006 onwards, GOVERD includes state government intramural performance (most of which being financed by the federal government and state government own funds). From 2016 onwards, PNPERD data are based on a new R&D performer survey. In the higher education sector all fields of SSH are included from 2003 onwards.

Following a survey of federally-funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) in 2005, it was concluded that FFRDC R&D belongs in the government sector - rather than the sector of the FFRDC administrator, as had been reported in the past. R&D expenditures by FFRDCs were reclassified from the other three R&D performing sectors to the Government sector; previously published data were revised accordingly. Between 2003 and 2004, the method used to classify data by industry has been revised. This particularly affects the ISIC category “wholesale trade” and consequently the BERD for total services.

U.S. R&D data are generally comparable, but there are some areas of underestimation:

1. i) Up to 2008, Government sector R&D performance covers only federal government activities. That by State and local government establishments is excluded;
2. ii) Except for the Government and the Business Enterprise sectors, the R&D data exclude most capital expenditures. For the Business Enterprise sector, depreciation is reported in place of gross capital expenditures up to 2014. Higher education (and national total) data were revised back to 1998 due to an improved methodology that corrects for double-counting of R&D funds passed between institutions.

Breakdown by type of R&D (basic research, applied research, etc.) was also revised back to 1998 in the business enterprise and higher education sectors due to improved estimation procedures.

The methodology for estimating researchers was changed as of 1985. In the Government, Higher Education and PNP sectors the data since then refer to employed doctoral scientists and engineers who report their primary work activity as research, development or the management of R&D, plus, for the Higher Education sector, the number of full-time equivalent graduate students with research assistantships averaging an estimated 50 % of their time engaged in R&D activities. As of 1985 researchers in the Government sector exclude military personnel. As of 1987, Higher education R&D personnel also include those who report their primary work activity as design.

Due to lack of official data for the different employment sectors, the total researchers figure is an OECD estimate up to 2019. Comprehensive reporting of R&D personnel statistics by the United States has resumed with records available since 2020, reflecting the addition of official figures for the number of researchers and total R&D personnel for the higher education sector and the Private non-profit sector; as well as the number of researchers for the government sector. The new data revise downwards previous OECD estimates as the OECD extrapolation methods drawing on historical US data, required to produce a consistent OECD aggregate, appear to have previously overestimated the growth in the number of researchers in the higher education sector.

Pre-production development is excluded from Defence GBARD (in accordance with the Frascati Manual) as of 2000. 2009 GBARD data also includes the one time incremental R&D funding legislated in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Beginning with the 2000 GBARD data, budgets for capital expenditure – “R&D plant” in national terminology - are included. GBARD data for earlier years relate to budgets for current costs only.