Federal Debt Increased by $2.2 Trillion in Fiscal Year 2023

The federal government’s debt increased by $2,238,422,431,416.43 in fiscal 2023, according to data published by the U.S. Treasury Department.

On Sept. 30, 2022, the last day of fiscal 2022, the federal debt was $30,928,911,613,306.73, according to Treasury Department data. By Sept. 29, 2023, the last business day of fiscal 2023, it had climbed to $33,167,334,044,723.16.

The $2,238,422,431,416.43 increase in the federal debt that took place in fiscal 2023 is the third largest fiscal-year increase on record. The largest fiscal-year increase in the federal debt occurred in fiscal 2020, the year the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

That fiscal year, the debt increased by $4,225,989,441,181.

In fiscal year 2021, the annual increase in the debt dropped back to $1,483,527,375,433. But in fiscal 2022, the debt increased by $2,499,993,043,258 before climbing by $2,238,422,431,416 in fiscal 2023.

Fiscal 2022 and 2023 mark the first two years in succession that the federal debt has increased by more than $2 trillion.

As of August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were approximately 161,484,000 people employed in the United States. The federal debt of $33,167,334,044,723.16 equaled $205,390.83 for each of those workers.