Spending details break down government expenditures by function and level of government. You can also drill down to view more spending detail by clicking the [+] control on each function line.

[+] Drill-down: Click on the [+] to drill down to more detailed numbers. For federal spending line items (but not revenue) you can drill down three levels to view about 4,000 items of spending at the “agency code” level.

Click on ato display a bar of data in a row or column of this table.Click onto display a time-series chart of data in a row.

Change Data View: The default view of spending data is by function . But you can also view data by program or the UN COFOG classification system.

Pie Chart: Select a pie chart you wish to display. You can create a pie chart for federal, state and local, and overall spending/revenue.

US or State: By default, the table shows values for governments in the United States overall. But for years after 1991 you can select individual states by selecting the state dropdown control in the table heading or the text link right above it.

State and Local Spending: By default, state and local spending are displayed separately. But you can select state'n local and display state and local spending combined.

US Budget Year: By default, the table displays budgeted and estimated numbers from the most recent US Federal Budget submitted to the Congress by the president. But you can look at numbers from other US Federal Budgets using this dropdown control.

Fiscal Year: The default year displayed is the current US government fiscal year. But you can select any year you want using the dropdown control in the table heading. At the top and bottom of the dropdown only years ending in “0” are shown. Select a year to get close, then select the year you want. You can increase or decrease the year using the “yr” text links in the table heading.

Units: By default, values are displayed in billions of nominal dollars . By using a dropdown control in the table heading you can select millions of dollars , percent of GDP , percent of federal total , percent of overall total , dollars per capita of population , and thousand dollars per capita of population .

Spending Definitions

Pensions: Pensions, disability.

Health Care: Health care.

Education: K-12, college, training.

Defense: Military, foreign policy, veterans, foreign aid.

Welfare: Cash welfare, food stamps, unemployment benefits, workers compensation, housing, excluding health care.

Protection: Police, fire, law courts, prisons.

Transportation: Road, rail, airports.

General Government: Legislative, executive, finance.

Other Spending: Research, economic development, agriculture, energy, environment.

Interest: Interest on government debt.

Total Spending: Federal: total outlays including grants to state and local. State and local: direct spending on programs.

Table Notes

The table shows overall government expenditures for the specified fiscal year. Spending totals are aggregated for each major government function.

For the United States the table shows spending for all levels of government—federal spending, state spending, and local spending. For individual states the table shows expenditures for state and local governments only.

Intergovernmental Transfers: The column labeled “Gov. Xfer” in the table represents monies paid by the federal government as grants and aid to state and local governments. These are “intergovernmental transfers.”

For a discussion read All About Intergovernmental Transfers.

Federal Spending by Agency Code: If you drill down below the federal subfunction level you can see federal spending split up into about 4,000 agency code accounts.

For a discussion read Federal Spending at the Agency Code Level

For explanation of Other Borrowing row see blog on “The Feds Borrow More than the ‘Deficit.’”

You can use controls on the table to change from display of nationwide spending data to individual states. You can change the year or to drill down to view more detailed spending information. You can also view the spending data as percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Click the button at the right of each line of the table to display a bar chart of government spending. Click a button at the base of each column for a bar chart or pie chart. You can right click on the chart image to copy and paste it into your own content. Click the image to close the chart display.