US federal debt vs deficit by president
Two different things get called "the deficit". The annual deficit is one year's shortfall — what the government spent beyond what it collected. The debt is the accumulated total. This page puts both on one timeline, from fiscal 1992 to fiscal 2025.
Both lines are shaded by the party of the president in office — blue for Democratic terms, red for Republican. Colour marks the presidency, not the series: the upper line is total debt, the lower one the annual deficit. The table below gives both figures for every year.
The gap between the two lines is the point. In 2025 the deficit was $1.77T, while the debt it added to stood at $37.64T — roughly 21 times larger. A president can preside over a shrinking deficit while the debt still climbs.
A surplus is rare: 4 of the 34 years shown ran one (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001). The deepest single-year deficit was $3.10T in fiscal 2020.
A surplus does not mean the debt fell. This chart plots GROSS federal debt, which includes the Treasury securities the government issues to its own trust funds — so a year that takes in more than it spends can still end with more debt outstanding than it started with. That is exactly what happened in every surplus year shown here: gross debt went from $5.53T at the end of fiscal 1998 to $5.81T at the end of fiscal 2001, rising through all four.
| Fiscal year ending | Total public debt | Surplus or deficit |
|---|---|---|
| 1992-09-30 | $4.06T | −$0.29T |
| 1993-09-30 | $4.41T | −$0.26T |
| 1994-09-30 | $4.69T | −$0.20T |
| 1995-09-30 | $4.97T | −$0.16T |
| 1996-09-30 | $5.22T | −$0.11T |
| 1997-09-30 | $5.41T | −$0.02T |
| 1998-09-30 | $5.53T | +$0.07T |
| 1999-09-30 | $5.66T | +$0.13T |
| 2000-09-30 | $5.67T | +$0.24T |
| 2001-09-30 | $5.81T | +$0.13T |
| 2002-09-30 | $6.23T | −$0.16T |
| 2003-09-30 | $6.78T | −$0.38T |
| 2004-09-30 | $7.38T | −$0.41T |
| 2005-09-30 | $7.93T | −$0.32T |
| 2006-09-30 | $8.51T | −$0.25T |
| 2007-09-30 | $9.01T | −$0.16T |
| 2008-09-30 | $10.02T | −$0.46T |
| 2009-09-30 | $11.91T | −$1.41T |
| 2010-09-30 | $13.56T | −$1.29T |
| 2011-09-30 | $14.79T | −$1.30T |
| 2012-09-30 | $16.07T | −$1.08T |
| 2013-09-30 | $16.74T | −$0.68T |
| 2014-09-30 | $17.82T | −$0.48T |
| 2015-09-30 | $18.15T | −$0.44T |
| 2016-09-30 | $19.57T | −$0.58T |
| 2017-09-30 | $20.24T | −$0.67T |
| 2018-09-30 | $21.52T | −$0.78T |
| 2019-09-30 | $22.72T | −$0.98T |
| 2020-09-30 | $26.95T | −$3.10T |
| 2021-09-30 | $28.43T | −$2.77T |
| 2022-09-30 | $30.93T | −$1.37T |
| 2023-09-30 | $33.17T | −$1.69T |
| 2024-09-30 | $35.46T | −$1.82T |
| 2025-09-30 | $37.64T | −$1.77T |
Each figure is dated to the 30 September fiscal year end that both series report. The debt series is published quarterly and dated at the start of the quarter it covers, so the level for 30 September is carried by the observation FRED labels 1 July — a detail worth knowing if you compare these numbers against the raw series.
For either series on its own, see federal debt by president and the annual deficit or surplus by president.