At the start of April 2022, US outstanding debt was at $30.3 trillion, or about $89,237 per person in the US. About 79% of the federal government’s debt is owned by the public.
While the terms federal deficit and federal debt typically show up together, they mean very different things. The federal deficit describes anytime the federal government spends more than it receives in taxes and other revenue in a single year. The federal government has run budget deficits every year since 2001.
The federal debt is the total of all those yearly deficits. For most of US history, the government has had a debt of some amount. The current federal debt of $30.3 trillion is a culmination of all the yearly deficits, and the few yearly surpluses, the US ever had.
