US debt rose $2.53 trillion in fiscal 2026, the biggest annual jump since the pandemic, to $40.46 trillion
Total US public debt rose $2.53 trillion in fiscal year 2026 to $40.17 trillion, the largest fiscal-year increase since 2020, and reached $40.46 trillion on 23 October 2026, Treasury data show.
What you need to know
The US government's total public debt outstanding increased by $2.53 trillion in fiscal year 2026, which ended on 30 September, according to Treasury 'Debt to the Penny' data compiled in the LedgerWire US national debt tracker. That is the largest rise in any fiscal year since 2020, when pandemic spending added $4.23 trillion. The debt stood at $40.46 trillion on 23 October 2026, up $2.46 trillion from a year earlier, an average of about $6.7 billion a day.
- Total public debt outstanding was $40.46 trillion on 23 October 2026, up $2.46 trillion from $38.01 trillion a year earlier, according to the Treasury's Debt to the Penny data.
- In fiscal year 2026 (1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026) the debt rose $2.53 trillion, from $37.64 trillion to $40.17 trillion, the largest fiscal-year increase since 2020's $4.23 trillion.
- The debt crossed $39 trillion on 17 March 2026 and $40 trillion on 18 August 2026, 154 days later; it has added about $6.7 billion a day on average over the past 12 months.
- Debt held by the public, the portion owed to outside investors, reached $32.61 trillion, or 81% of the total, after rising $2.15 trillion in fiscal 2026; intragovernmental holdings were $7.85 trillion.
What the latest data show
The US Treasury's Bureau of the Fiscal Service reported total public debt outstanding of $40,463,151,897,249.19 on Friday, 23 October 2026, the most recent business day in its Debt to the Penny dataset. That is $2.46 trillion, or 6.5%, more than the $38.01 trillion recorded on 23 October 2025.
The debt has risen $1.95 trillion since the end of 2025, when it stood at $38.51 trillion, and $291 billion since the end of September. Over the past 12 months it has grown by an average of about $6.7 billion per calendar day.
Fiscal 2026: the biggest increase since the pandemic
Measured over the federal fiscal year, which runs from 1 October to 30 September, total debt rose from $37.64 trillion on 30 September 2025 to $40.17 trillion on 30 September 2026, an increase of $2.53 trillion. That is larger than the rise in any fiscal year since 2020, when the debt jumped $4.23 trillion as the government financed its pandemic response.
For comparison, the debt grew $2.17 trillion in fiscal 2025, $2.30 trillion in fiscal 2024, $2.24 trillion in fiscal 2023, $2.50 trillion in fiscal 2022 and $1.48 trillion in fiscal 2021. The fiscal 2025 figure was held down by the debt limit: from January to early July 2025 total debt barely moved, at about $36.2 trillion, while Treasury used extraordinary measures, before Congress raised the limit by $5 trillion in July 2025.
A trillion dollars roughly every five months
Once the limit was lifted, borrowing caught up quickly. The debt went from $36.22 trillion on 3 July 2025 to $36.92 trillion by the end of that month, passed $37 trillion on 11 August 2025 and $38 trillion on 21 October 2025, just 71 days later.
Since then the pace has settled at about one trillion dollars every five months. The debt passed $39 trillion on 17 March 2026, 147 days after crossing $38 trillion, and $40 trillion on 18 August 2026, 154 days after that. At the start of 2020 it was $23.17 trillion, so it has risen by $17.29 trillion, or 75%, in less than seven years.
Who holds the debt
Of the $40.46 trillion total, $32.61 trillion is debt held by the public, meaning Treasury securities owned by investors, companies, the Federal Reserve, state and local governments and foreign governments. That portion rose $2.15 trillion in fiscal 2026, more than in any fiscal year since 2020, and makes up 81% of the total.
The remaining $7.85 trillion is intragovernmental holdings: securities held by federal trust funds such as Social Security and military and civil service retirement funds. Those holdings rose by $387 billion in fiscal 2026.
About the data
Debt to the Penny is published by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service each business day and reports total public debt outstanding as of the previous business day, split into debt held by the public and intragovernmental holdings. Total public debt is not the same as the debt subject to the statutory limit, which excludes some items. Figures are in nominal dollars and are not adjusted for inflation or the size of the economy.
Figures in this article come from the Treasury Fiscal Data API, which the LedgerWire US national debt tracker downloads daily. Every one of the 1,711 daily records since January 2020 in the tracker matched the official API when checked on 27 October 2026. Fiscal-year figures compare the last business day of each September. The tracker offers the full daily series as a CSV download and an embeddable chart.
How much did the US national debt increase in fiscal year 2026?
Total US public debt outstanding rose $2.53 trillion in fiscal year 2026, from $37.64 trillion on 30 September 2025 to $40.17 trillion on 30 September 2026, the largest fiscal-year increase since 2020. On 23 October 2026 the debt was $40.46 trillion, according to the Treasury's Debt to the Penny data.
Sources & context
- Debt to the Penny (U.S. Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service) ↗fiscaldata.treasury.gov
- Treasury Fiscal Data API: debt_to_penny endpoint ↗api.fiscaldata.treasury.gov
- LedgerWire US national debt tracker: daily Treasury figures since 2020 ↗ledgerwire.org
- Daily total, public and intragovernmental debt, spreadsheet file ↗ledgerwire.org
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