The Ten Biggest Increases in the Federal Debt

A couple of cautions. By "increases" I mean percent increase, not dollars or billions. And here we look at both the "federal" debt (for the years 1947-2022) and the U.S. "public" debt (for the years 1917-1970). I figure the "public" numbers include debt for all levels of government.

Public Debt

Source: Historical Statistics

The two largest increases in public debt of the 1916-1970 period are over 100%. In 1917 the increase was bigger than the whole existing debt at the end of 1916. 1918 again, this time even bigger than the accumulation thru 1917.

After those two WWI-related increases, there are three from WWII. These are well below 100%.

Next, one more year from WWI, then two more from WWII, and finally two from the Great Depression. That's the top ten.

Federal Debt

Source: FRED

For the federal debt, the biggest increase of the 1946-2022 period was the pandemic-related increase of 2020. Nowhere near the 100% level, the pandemic debt increase was nonetheless almost 25% of the total federal debt existing at the end of 2019.

Coming in a close second is the increase of 1975. I'm thinkin Wow, the 1974 recession was a severe one. 

The two next-largest increases are related to the "Great Recession" that followed the financial crisis a decade and a half ago. 

After that, 1982: another severe recession. Then one more for the Great Recession, followed by three increases following that of 1982, and one for 1976, following up on the 1975 increase.

Yeah, it is true that by looking at the size of the increases we lose sight of the size of the total accumulation. That still catches me by surprise every so often.

The data on public debt is from the Bicentennial Edition of the Historical Statistics, Chapter X.

The data on federal debt is from FRED. I'm using FGTCMDODNS, a measure of "credit market" debt. This is equal to neither the gross federal debt, nor the debt held by the public; it runs between those two measures.

I wanted to look at these numbers because I have never seen them shown this way, in order by size-of-increase. It really makes the "problem years" stand out.