Here’s how the government spent $6.8T last year
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The federal government spent $6.8 trillion in fiscal year 2024. We’ll say that again.
$6,800,000,000,000.
We're not saying that's good or bad, too much or too little. But we can agree that that scale is hard to fathom, right?
Luckily, we did it for you. Our new agency spending chart makes 2024 spending for the executive, legislative, and judicial branches easier to understand. We even tracked the president’s budget, independent agencies such as NASA, and entities that get federal money but don’t slot neatly into other categories (think the Smithsonian).
A few insights:
- The Department of Health and Human Services spent $1.7 trillion in 2024. That was about 25.4% of federal expenditures, primarily driven by the $1.5 trillion in spending by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
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- The Social Security Administration accounted for the biggest share of independent agency spending: $1.5 trillion.
- Federal Student Aid accounted for 2.4% of federal spending, totaling $161.0 billion.
- The National Parks Service spent just under $4.5 billion, for 0.07% of federal spending.
- Congress runs the botanic garden adjacent to the Capitol Building. The garden accounted for $19.0 million in legislative branch spending.
Hover over any section for more detail. |
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There’s much more in the viz, so dive in and explore! |
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The nation’s free trade agreements
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The Trump administration announced a series of tariff increases in April 2025, with higher rates for countries with whom the US has larger trade deficits, in other words, where the US imports more than it exports. Some of those tariffs are paused for now, but they still cast a spotlight on trade. So, what are free trade agreements, and where did they come from?
- The United States entered a global agreement on trade after World War II. In 1995, the agreement was integrated into the standards of the World Trade Organization, which includes the US among its 164 members. The WTO regulates tariff rates across member countries but also allows member nations to negotiate other free trade agreements.
- The US has 14 free trade agreements with 20 countries, which account for about 40% of all American exports.
- Canada and Mexico are the nation’s two largest trading partners. These partnerships are covered by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), formerly known as NAFTA.
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- Total trade, or two-way trade, is the sum of exports and imports. It measures the measures the overall volume of trade between two countries, but not trade deficits or surpluses Total trade volume between the US and Mexico was $840 billion in 2024, an increase of 296% from $212 billion in 1994. (See the charts for 16 more countries.)
- Total trade volume with Canada was $762 billion in 2024, an increase of 48% from $514 billion in 1994.
Want more? There’s a brand-new video with USAFacts Founder Steve Ballmer about trade and tariffs. Keep and eye on your inbox for more facts from the video in the coming weeks. |
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Get the tax data we sent your congressperson
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The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) is set to expire at the end of 2025 unless Congress acts. Our research experts have created reports on the tax landscape pre- and post-TCJA and provided them to Congress as the tax policy discussions heat up. But there’s no reason why Congress gets to keep this data to themselves.
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An advisory panel appointed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. voted on Thursday regarding some flu vaccine recommendations. Here are the vaccines recommended for adults as of published in March.
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Before the TCJA, there was no limit on how much taxpayers could deduct for state and local taxes (SALT). The law introduced a $10,000 cap beginning in 2018, and that cap is set to expire at the end of this year. SALT was previously the largest itemized deduction in the tax code. The share of returns claiming the deduction dropped from 30.4% in 2017 to 9.3% in 2022, while the average SALT deduction fell from $13,457 to $8,303. |
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