CBO Releases Infographics About the Federal Budget in Fiscal Year 2024

Posted by
Dan Ready
on
March 20, 2025

Each year, CBO releases a set of four budget infographics that provide a detailed look at the past fiscal year as well as broader trends over the past few decades. Today, CBO published the latest infographics showing the federal budget results for fiscal year 2024.

These infographics help people understand how much the government spends and takes in each year and what programs and revenue sources account for the largest portions of those budgetary flows.

As highlighted in the first infographic, the government ran a budget deficit of $1.8 trillion in 2024, which is equal to 6.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP)—much larger than the average of 3.8 percent over the past 50 years. The government’s net interest costs totaled $881 billion in 2024, about two and half times the amount in 2021.

The first two infographics (which feature the budgetary overview and mandatory spending) show that Social Security and Medicare accounted for the majority of mandatory spending and more than one-third of federal spending in 2024; combined, those two programs eclipsed discretionary spending, which is presented in the third infographic. Outlays for nondefense programs accounted for more than half of the discretionary total. Revenues (shown in the fourth infographic) were slightly more, as a percentage of GDP, than they averaged over the past 20 years.

You can view the infographics for 2024 below, including an interactive version of the one about the overall federal budget:

Infographics for other years are also available.

Dan Ready is an analyst in CBO’s Budget Analysis Division.