Introduction
01/01/1790 — 09/30/2023Released AnnuallyLast Updated 10/03/2023
Historical Debt Outstanding is a dataset that provides a summary of the U.S. government's total outstanding debt at the end of each fiscal year from 1789 to the current year. Between 1789 and 1842, the fiscal year began in January. From January 1842 until 1977, the fiscal year began in July. From July 1977 onwards, the fiscal year has started in October. Between 1789 and 1919, debt outstanding was presented as of the first day of the next fiscal year. From 1920 onwards, debt outstanding has been presented as of the final day of the fiscal year. This is a high-level summary of historical public debt and does not contain a breakdown of the debt components.
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Data Table:
N/A
Date Range:
Dataset Properties
Data Table Name | Field Name | Display Name | Description | Data Type | Is Required |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Historical Debt Outstanding | record_date | Record Date | The date that data was published. | DATE | 1 |
| Historical Debt Outstanding | debt_outstanding_amt | Debt Outstanding Amount | The Total Debt Outstanding represents the face amount or principal amount of marketable and non-marketable securities currently outstanding. Total debt outstanding is expressed as of fiscal year end. | CURRENCY | 1 |
| Historical Debt Outstanding | src_line_nbr | Source Line Number | Indicates the row of the corresponding table where a data point can be found. This can assist in structuring the data in a similar format to the published report and in understanding potential hierarchies within the table. | INTEGER | 1 |
| Historical Debt Outstanding | record_fiscal_year | Fiscal Year | The fiscal year associated with record_date. The federal government's fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30. | YEAR | 1 |
| Historical Debt Outstanding | record_fiscal_quarter | Fiscal Quarter Number | The fiscal quarter associated with record_date. For the federal government these quarters are: Q1 - October to December, Q2 - January to March, Q3 - April to June, Q4 - July to September. | QUARTER | 1 |
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Notes & Known Limitations
Total Public Debt Outstanding Disclaimer
There are six datasets on Fiscal Data which include the national debt, which is referred to as Total Public Debt Outstanding (TPDO). TPDO is the sum of Debt Held by the Public and Intragovernmental (Intragov) Holdings. Some datasets include debt issued by the Federal Financing Bank (FFB). The datasets listed below only include debt issued by the Treasury Department. The list below provides information on where there are differences in debt calculations related to the national debt.
Debt to the Penny contains TPDO, as well as a breakout of Debt Held by the Public and Intragov Holdings. In this dataset, Intragov Holdings includes debt issued by the FFB.
Historical Debt Outstanding contains TPDO, but no breakout of Debt Held by the Public and Intragov Holdings. In this dataset, TPDO includes debt issued by the FFB.
Daily Treasury Statement (DTS) contains Debt Held by the Public and Intragov Holdings, but does not aggregate these two categories into TPDO. In this dataset, Intragov Holdings includes debt issued by the FFB. Dollar values for Debt Held by the Public and Intragov Holdings are rounded in millions to cohere with other data in the dataset. Please note that the published reports on the Fiscal Service site contain TPDO values.
Monthly Treasury Statement (MTS) contains TPDO, as well as a breakout of Debt Held by the Public and Intragov Holdings. In this dataset, Intragov Holdings includes debt issued by the FFB.
Monthly Statement of the Public Debt (MSPD) contains TPDO, as well as a breakout of Debt Held by the Public and Intragov Holdings. In this dataset, Intragov Holdings includes debt issued by the FFB. Dollar values are rounded in millions to cohere with other data in the dataset.
Schedules of Federal Debt contains Debt Held by the Public and Intragov Holdings, but does not aggregate these two categories into TPDO. In this dataset, Intragov Holdings do not include debt issued by the FFB. Dollar values are rounded in millions to cohere with other data in the dataset.
End Total Public Debt Outstanding Disclaimer
The first fiscal year for the U.S. Government started January 1, 1789. There are two entries in calendar year 1843 that coincide with the change in the start of the fiscal year for the federal government. However, there is only one entry in calendar year 1977 when the fiscal year was changed to the current format. Some columns in this dataset overlap with the Debt to the Penny, Daily Treasury Statement (DTS), U.S. Treasury Monthly Statement of the Public Debt (MSPD), and Monthly Treasury Statement (MTS) datasets.
Downloaded CSV files with values greater than $10 trillion may have the final two digits (cents) excluded due to digit limits enforced by the application used to access the file. The JSON and XML file downloads are not impacted by this limitation.
Total Public Debt Outstanding = Debt Held by the Public + Intragovernmental Holdings
Total Public Debt Outstanding is represented in this dataset by the Debt Outstanding Amount variable and does not contain the separate Debt Held by the Public and Intragovernmental Holdings amounts.
Please note that Total Public Debt Outstanding may be calculated differently within different datasets. See those datasets Notes & Known Limitations section for more details.
API Quick Guide
Check out our more detailed API Documentation.
API Documentation
Endpoint
BASE URL:
https://api.fiscaldata.treasury.gov/services/api/fiscal_service/
ENDPOINT:
FULL URL:
https://api.fiscaldata.treasury.gov/services/api/fiscal_service/
Fields
Refer to Dataset Properties above for a data dictionary with field names and descriptions, as well as notes and known limitations. known limitations.
| Field Name | Display Name | Data Type |
|---|
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Data Types
All data is returned as a string, including nulls. Refer to the chart above for the intended data type of each field.
Parameters
Refer to Dataset Properties above for a data dictionary with field names and descriptions as well as notes and known limitations
Fields
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- Parameter:
fields= - Definition: The fields parameter allows you to select which field(s) should be included in the response.
- Accepts: The
fields=parameter accepts a comma-separated list of field names (no parentheses). - Required: No, specifying fields is not required to make an API request.
- Default: If desired fields are not specified, all fields will be returned.
- Notes: When a field named passed to the
fields=parameter is not available for the endpoint accessed, an error will occur. Note that omitting fields can result in automatically aggregated and summed data results. For more information, view the full documentation on Aggregation and Sums.
EXAMPLE
?fields=
Filters
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Sorting
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Format
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Pagination
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Methods
Our APIs accept the GET method, one of the most common HTTP methods.
Example Request & Response
In this example, we are...
- Specifying the endpoint
- Requesting the JSON response format
- Sorting the data by
in descending order - Setting pagination parameters
EXAMPLE REQUEST
https://api.fiscaldata.treasury.gov/services/api/fiscal_service/undefined?sort=-undefined&format=json&page[number]=1&page[size]=1
EXPECTED RESPONSE
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For More API Information
Visit our full API documentation to find out more about:
- Aggregation and sums
- Pivoting
- Response codes
- Meta object
- ...and more!
API Documentation
