US National Debt Clock
The total U.S. national debt, ticking in real time. Anchored to the U.S. Treasury's official daily "Debt to the Penny" figure, with per-second growth estimated from the trailing 30-day run rate — and the entire calculation shown openly below.
US national debt: $39,692,374,867,364.99 — the official U.S. Treasury figure as of July 24, 2026. It is currently growing by an estimated $143,467 per second.
The debt in context
Composition, ratios and fiscal-year flows. Each tile names its source and the date it's current through; estimates and cross-source derivations are flagged.
Per-household and per-taxpayer figures are deliberately absent: no official household or taxpayer count flows through our data pipeline, and we don't invent denominators. For a household figure based on your household size, use the share-of-the-debt calculator.
The debt 1, 5, 10 and 20 years ago
Official Treasury records on this date in past years, with the implied compound annual growth rate since.
Each card is the actual U.S. Treasury "Debt to the Penny" record on the business day at or before that anniversary of July 24, 2026 (the latest official figure). Growth rates are compound annual rates over the exact elapsed span.
Five-year trajectory
How this clock is calculated
The official total comes from the U.S. Treasury's Debt to the Penny dataset, which updates once per business day. Debt does not actually rise in smooth per-second increments — it jumps when Treasury securities settle — so the ticking number is an estimate of the run rate between official updates. When the next daily figure publishes, the clock re-anchors to it.
- Current anchor (official)
- $39,692,374,867,364.99 as of July 24, 2026
- Current run rate (estimated)
- $143,467/second · $12.40B/day
rate = (latest − ~30 days prior) ÷ days elapsed ÷ 86,400 — currently measured from Jun 24, 2026 ($39.32T) to Jul 24, 2026 ($39.69T). The displayed total is the anchor plus elapsed seconds × rate.- Values marked (est.) are interpolations; values marked derived combine two official sources (e.g. fiscal-year-to-date = latest Monthly Treasury Statement totals minus the prior fiscal year's finals). Everything else is an official figure shown as published.
- If your system asks for reduced motion, the ticker freezes at the official anchor value — the data is identical, only the animation stops.
- Full provenance for every series on this site: methodology.
Understanding the national debt
What the debt is
The national debt is the total amount the federal government owes — the accumulation of every year it spent more than it collected, financed by issuing Treasury securities (bills, notes and bonds). It is a stock: a balance outstanding on a given day, measured by Treasury down to the penny. See the federal debt glossary entry for the formal definition.
Debt vs deficit
The deficit is one year's shortfall — outlays minus receipts for a fiscal year (October through September). The debt is every past shortfall stacked up. When headlines say "the deficit fell", the debt is still rising — just more slowly. The board above shows both: the fiscal-year-to-date flows and the total stock.
Held by the public vs intragovernmental
About four-fifths of the debt is held by the public — investors, pension funds, foreign governments and the Federal Reserve. The rest is intragovernmental: money one part of the government owes another, mostly Treasury securities held by the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. Economists usually focus on debt held by the public, because it's what the government must refinance in markets; the headline "national debt" is the sum of both.
Why debt trackers disagree
Treasury publishes the true total once per business day, so every "live" debt clock — including this one — is interpolating between official data points. Trackers differ in the anchor they start from, the growth rate they assume, and whether they disclose either. Some well-known clocks extrapolate many figures from models without showing the math. Our rule: anchor to Treasury's official figure, estimate the rate only from Treasury's own trailing data, and label everything that isn't an official number. For a side-by-side look at the major trackers, see how the debt and spending trackers compare, and our full methodology.
Put this clock on your site
The live debt counter is free to embed on any site — news articles, classroom pages, blogs. One iframe, no account, no API key. It shows the same Treasury-anchored figure as this page and updates on the same daily cadence.
<iframe src="https://govspending.org/embed/debt-counter/" width="100%" height="200" frameborder="0" title="US National Debt — Live Counter — via govspending.org"></iframe>
Browse all embeddable widgets — inflation, yield curve, fed funds and more
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the US national debt right now?
The figure ticking above is the live estimate. Its anchor is the U.S. Treasury's official 'Debt to the Penny' total, published every business day; the smoothly rising number interpolates growth between those daily updates and is labeled as an estimate.
How fast is the US national debt growing?
The pace varies with tax receipts and Treasury borrowing, but in recent months it has averaged tens of thousands of dollars per second. This clock estimates the rate from the trailing 30-day average of Treasury's daily figures and shows it as dollars per second and per day.
Is this the official national debt figure?
The anchor value is the official Treasury 'Debt to the Penny' total, updated each business day. The continuously ticking number is an interpolation between those official updates — a visualization of the run rate, clearly marked '(est.)'.
What is the difference between debt held by the public and intragovernmental debt?
Debt held by the public is owed to outside investors — individuals, companies, foreign governments and the Federal Reserve. Intragovernmental holdings are what the government owes itself, mainly the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. Together they are the total national debt.
What is the difference between the debt and the deficit?
The deficit is a flow: how much more the government spends than it collects in one fiscal year. The debt is a stock: the accumulation of every past deficit and surplus, plus other borrowing. A $1.8 trillion deficit means the debt grows by roughly that much over the year.
Why do different debt clocks show different numbers?
Every debt clock interpolates, because Treasury only publishes the true total once per business day. Clocks differ in their anchor date, their assumed growth rate, and whether they disclose either one. This clock re-anchors to Treasury's figure daily, estimates the rate from the trailing 30 days of official data, and shows the anchor, the rate, and the formula openly.
How much is the national debt per person?
Dividing the total debt by the U.S. population gives the per-resident share shown on the board above. For a personalized household figure, use the 'Your share of the debt' calculator.
How often does this page update?
Treasury publishes 'Debt to the Penny' each business day, typically reporting the prior business day's close. This site refreshes its data snapshots daily, and the clock re-anchors to the newest official total on every refresh. Between updates, the ticking number is an estimate.