The United States national debt has surpassed $38 trillion for the first time in history, reaching $38,019,813,354,700.26 on October 21, 2025, according to Treasury Department data. This milestone comes just over two months after the debt crossed $37 trillion in mid-August, marking the fastest accumulation of $1 trillion in debt outside the COVID-19 pandemic era.
The national debt has accelerated dramatically in recent years. It took only 71 days for the U.S. to add $1 trillion in debt, from $37 trillion to $38 trillion—a pace that is twice as fast as the average rate of growth since 2000. The Joint Economic Committee estimates the national debt has surged by approximately $69,714 every second over the past year.
The debt’s trajectory shows consistent upward momentum: $34 trillion in January 2024, $35 trillion in July 2024, $36 trillion in November 2024, $37 trillion in August 2025, and now $38 trillion in October 2025.
This translates to approximately $111,000 of debt for every person in the United States.
Interest payments on the national debt totaled $970 billion in fiscal year 2025, surpassing spending on national defense and becoming the third-largest federal government expenditure behind only Social Security and Medicare. This is a dramatic increase from $882 billion in fiscal year 2024.
The Congressional Budget Office projects that net interest payments will total $13.8 trillion over the next decade, rising from an annual cost of $1.0 trillion in 2026 to $1.8 trillion in 2035. As a percentage of GDP, interest costs are projected to reach 3.2 percent in 2026—eclipsing the previous high set in 1991—and climb to 4.1 percent by 2035.
The debt-to-GDP ratio currently stands at approximately 124-125 percent.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that under current policies, the debt could reach 156 percent of GDP by 2055, with some projections suggesting it could hit 200 percent by 2047.
The Government Accountability Office outlines multiple consequences of escalating government debt for Americans, including increased borrowing expenses for mortgages and vehicles, stagnant wages due to businesses having less capital to invest, and higher prices for goods and services.
In May 2025, Moody’s downgraded the U.S. government’s credit rating from its top rating of Aaa to Aa1, citing the inability of successive administrations to reverse the pattern of substantial annual fiscal deficits and increasing interest expenses. This action followed similar downgrades from Fitch and Standard & Poor’s in earlier years.
