Summary, reconciliation and revisions information on UK government deficit and debt figures by calendar and financial year.

Government debt in the United Kingdom reached over 2.8 trillion British pounds in 2024/25, compared with 2.69 trillion pounds in the previous financial year. Although debt has been increasing throughout this period, there is a noticeable jump between 2019/20, and 2020/21, when debt increased from 1.82 trillion pounds, to 2.15 trillion. The UK's government debt was the equivalent of 93.5 percent of GDP in 2024/25, and is expected to increase slightly in coming years, and not start falling until the end of this decade. Public finances in a tight spot With government debt approaching 100 percent of GDP, the UK finds itself in a tricky fiscal situation. If the UK can't reduce it's spending, or increase its revenue, the government will have to continue borrowing large amounts, increasing the debt further. Adding to the problem, is the fact that financing this debt has got steadily more expensive recently, with the government currently spending more on debt interest than it does on defence, transport, and public order and safety. Can the UK grow out its debt? After the Second World War, when the national debt reached over 250 percent of GDP, the UK managed to reduce its debt-to-GDP ratio, due to the economy growing faster than its debt over a long period of time. This is certainly the hope of the current Labour government, who are seeking to avoid significant tax and spending adjustments by strengthening the economy. Overdue investments in infrastructure and increased capital spending may eventually achieve this goal, but the government's declining popularity suggests they may not be in power by the time these policies might eventually bear fruit.

Public sector net debt amounted to 93.5 percent of gross domestic product in the United Kingdom during the 2024/25 financial year. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, UK government debt has reached levels not seen since the early 1960s, due to a significant increase in borrowing in 2020/21. After peaking at 251.7 percent shortly after the end of the Second World War, government debt in the UK gradually fell, before a sharp increase in the late 2000s at the time of the global financial crisis. Debt not expected to start falling until 2029/30 In 2024/25, the UK's government expenditure was approximately 1.28 trillion pounds, around 44 percent of GDP. This spending was financed by 1.14 trillion pounds of revenue raised, and almost 150 billion pounds of borrowing. Although the UK government can continue to borrow money to finance its spending, the amount spent on debt interest has increased significantly in recent years. Current forecasts suggest that while the debt is eventually expected to start declining, this is based on falling government deficits in the next five years. Government facing hard choices Hitting fiscal targets, such as reducing the national debt, will require a careful balancing of the books from the current government, and the possibility for either spending cuts or tax rises. Although Labour ruled out raising the main government tax sources, Income Tax, National Insurance, and VAT, at the 2024 election, they did raise National Insurance for employers (rather than employees) and also cut Winter Fuel allowances for large numbers of pensioners. Less than a year after implementing cuts to Winter Fuel, the government performed a U-Turn on the issue, and also held back on more significant cuts to welfare.

Interest Payments on Government Debt in the United Kingdom decreased to 8364 GBP Million in October from 9451 GBP Million in September of 2025. This dataset includes a chart with historical data for the United Kingdom Interest Payments On Government Debt.

Public sector debt interest spending in the United Kingdom reached 124.7 billion British pounds in 2024/25, compared with just under 126.6 billion pounds in the previous year.

Government Debt in the United States increased to 38040094 USD Million in October from 37637553 USD Million in September of 2025. This dataset provides - United States Government Debt- actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

International comparison of UK general government gross debt and general government deficit as percentage of GDP.

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DAY ~11,000 (April 1st, 1993 to Present-Day)

This is a dataset that tracks several figures regarding US debt (to the penny) since 1993.

All data are official figures from the U.S. Treasury that have been compiled and structured by myself. Dates on the weekend (Saturday and Sunday), as well as federal holidays, are excluded from the debt tracker because the Treasury's fiscal data do not account for those days. Recent political debates in the US over the potential raising of the debt ceiling has inspired me to create this dataset. Personally, I believe that the issue will continue to dominate political discourse due to the increasing polarization between Democrats and Republicans.

Data Sources

The primary data source used was the U.S. Treasury's official website, which publishes fiscal data pertaining to the American government. Considering the meticulous documentation of federal spending by the Treasury, no other authority is more equipped to provide insight on US debt.

1. U.S. Treasury's FiscalData Website - The United States Department of the Treasury published daily updates on the national debt since April 1st, 1993. However, intragovernmental holdings and total public debt outstanding have only been accounted for at the end of each fiscal year since 1997. Daily updates for those two statistics officially began since March 31st, 2005.
2. U.S. Treasury's Finance Guide to the National Debt - The United States Department of the Treasury released a detailed overview of the national debt and how it operates in conjunction with American society. The guide mainly provided essential contextual knowledge needed to create a meaningful dataset.

Statistics Being Tracked

• Debt Held by the Public
• Intragovernmental Holdings
• Total Public Debt Outstanding

Dataset History

2023-02-17 - Dataset is created (10,914 days after temporal coverage start date).

GitHub Repository - The same data but on GitHub.

Code Starter

Link to Notebook Important: Each new record is accumulated data from previous days.

Key information about United States Government Debt: % of GDP

• United States Government debt accounted for 120.9 % of the country's Nominal GDP in Jun 2025, compared with the ratio of 122.3 % in the previous quarter.
• US government debt to GDP ratio data is updated quarterly, available from Mar 1969 to Jun 2025.
• The data reached an all-time high of 130.3 % in Mar 2021 and a record low of 31.8 % in Sep 1974.

• In the latest reports, US National Government Debt reached 38,040.1 USD bn in Oct 2025.
• The country's Nominal GDP reached 7,621.4 USD bn in Jun 2025.

Government Debt Indicators (OECD)

Country-level Measurements of General Government Debt

By OECD [source]

About this dataset

This dataset provides key indicators regarding the general government debt of OECD countries. These figures reflect the fact that an unfortunate portion of a country’s annual budget is allocated to repaying debt, and suggest different levels of financial stability across nations. By examining this data, we can observe fluctuations in public debt levels over time, as well as how various countries compare in terms of their general government debt buckets. Featuring monthly measurements for multiple years, these data points provide valuable insight into how borrowing affects the overall financial landscapes of the countries captured. Additionally, a convenient flag code system separately gauges the data’s accuracy and credibility to ensure that only reliable readings are observed

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Featured Notebooks

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How to use the dataset

• This dataset contains indicators on general government debt for OECD members and selected non-members. The indicators included in this dataset are useful in measuring country-level financial stability and understanding the sources of government financing. This dataset is a great resource for researchers, policy makers, and data journalists who are interested in analyzing trends in public finances across countries.

• The data is organized by twelve columns, which include LOCATION, INDICATOR, SUBJECT, MEASURE, FREQUENCY (annual or quarterly), TIME (year), Value (in national currency units where applicable) and Flag Codes which denote the accuracy of a given value’s measurement. To access specific information from this dataset such as a values or locations associated with particular indicators such as “Gross Debt of General Government” one can use the filtering options available to select specific regions that they want to compare against each other. The results page will show multiple graphs where users can export individual numbers or view/download all datasets related to particular subgroups based on their selection criteria. Additionally users can choose to generate tables if they wish to compare numerical results rather than graphical ones since each entry shows details up until 2018 along with values published over various years when available.

• It is important that users take note of any flag codes pertaining these datasets as this indicates why data may have been missing from specific points series entries under certain conditions thus providing additional context that should be good practice for comparative analysis purposes between different countries' results for instance. Finally we recommend that advanced users download directly and read through raw csv files provided at the link contained within this description so as to better understand how variables were recorded upon original entry though always keep current standards corresponding filtering column filter selection into account prior making any graphical comparison output interpretations without confirmation further details from more authoritative sources including national treasuries departments themselves if possible beforehand nature needed since all fields contained were originally filled out just once during collection process associated source year indicated at time entry only after has been approved management group curation following validation our accuracy protocols chosen site lastly once all said taken care creating memorable finalized looks report visualizations done easier all via software programs compatible kaggle now let's get started analyzing!

Research Ideas

• Computing gender-disaggregated government debt levels to reveal systemic imbalances such as gender inequality in government spending.
• Estimating the amount of money spent on infrastructure projects by specific OECD countries over a certain period of time.
• Modeling and predicting future macroeconomic trends in terms of general government debt, for use in investment and financial planning activities

Acknowledgements

If you use this dataset in your research, please credit the original authors. Data Source

License

License: Dataset copyright by authors - You are free to: - Share - copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially. - Adapt - remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. - You must: - **Give appropriate cr...

Graph and download economic data for Federal Debt: Total Public Debt (GFDEBTN) from Q1 1966 to Q2 2025 about public, debt, federal, government, and USA.

The United States recorded a Government Debt to GDP of 124.30 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product in 2024. This dataset provides - United States Government Debt To GDP - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

International standards data on General Government debt split by instrument, residency and currency type.

Government debt on a quarterly basis, for general government and its sub-sectors.

This dataset contains quarterly data on the public debt in the United States, starting from 1996 and running up to 2023. Public debt, also known as government debt, represents the total outstanding debt (bonds and other securities) of a country’s central government. Public debt as a percentage of GDP is often used by investors to measure a country's ability to make future payments on its debt, thus affecting the country's borrowing costs and government bond yields.

Content: The dataset comprises two columns:

Date: The end date of the respective quarter (MM/DD/YYYY format). Value: The total US public debt at the end of the respective quarter (in billions of USD). Acknowledgements: Data for this set is sourced from the US Department of the Treasury.

Inspiration: The US Public Debt is a critical economic indicator. Analysis of this data can offer insights into the fiscal health of the US government, its fiscal policy, and its ability to meet future obligations.

This dataset could be of interest to economists, financial analysts, data scientists, students, and anyone interested in the US economy or government finance.

Usability: The Public Debt data can be used for a variety of purposes:

Economic Analysis: It can be used for macroeconomic analysis and forecasting.

Government Finance Analysis: It can serve as a key indicator of the fiscal health of the US government.

Investment Analysis: Public debt levels can impact interest rates, inflation, and financial markets. Analysts can use this data to better understand these dynamics.

Policy Understanding: It can help understand the fiscal policy of the US government.

Education: It can be used in classrooms for teaching economics, finance, and related disciplines.

Total outstanding debt of the U.S. government reported daily. Includes a breakout of intragovernmental holdings (federal debt held by U.S. government) and debt held by the public (federal debt held by entities outside the U.S. government).

The long-term interest rate on government debt is a key indicator of the economic health of a country. The rate reflects financial market actors' perceptions of the creditworthiness of the government and the health of the domestic economy, with a strong and robust economic outlook allowing governments to borrow for essential investments in their economies, thereby boosting long-term growth.

The Euro and converging interest rates in the early 2000s

In the case of many Eurozone countries, the early 2000s were a time where this virtuous cycle of economic growth reduced the interest rates they paid on government debt to less than 5 percent, a dramatic change from the pre-Euro era of the 1990s. With the outbreak of the Global Financial Crisis and the subsequent deep recession, however, the economies of Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland were seen to be much weaker than previously assumed by lenders. Interest rates on their debt gradually began to rise during the crisis, before rapidly increasing beginning in 2010, as first Greece and then Ireland and Portugal lost the faith of financial markets.

The Eurozone crisis

This market adjustment was initially triggered due to revelations by the Greek government that the country's budget deficit was much larger than had been previously expected, with investors seeing the country as an unreliable debtor. The crisis, which became known as the Eurozone crisis, spread to Ireland and then Portugal, as lenders cut-off lending to highly indebted Eurozone members with weak fundamentals. During this period there was also intense speculation that due to unsustainable debt loads, some countries would have to leave the Euro currency area, further increasing the interest on their debt. Interest rates on their debt began to come back down after ECB Chief Mario Draghi signaled to markets that the central bank would intervene to keep the states within the currency area in his famous "whatever it takes" speech in Summer 2012.

The return of higher interest rates in the post-COVID era

Since this period of extremely high interest rates on government debt for these member states, the interest they are charged for borrowing has shrunk considerably, as the financial markets were flooded with "cheap money" due to the policy measures of central banks in the aftermath of the financial crisis, such as near-zero policy rates and quantitative easing. As interest rates have risen to combat inflation since 2022, so have the interest rates on government debt in the Eurozone also risen, however, these rises are modest compared to during the Eurozone crisis.