U.S. National Debt Clock
The national debt, ticking in real time. The starting figure is the U.S. Treasury's official total as of October 5, 2026. The tick rate is the average daily growth over the prior 63 days.
How this clock works
Every evening, the U.S. Treasury publishes the total public debt outstanding "to the penny." We take the latest figure and project it forward at the average growth rate of the prior 63 days (about $93,673 per second). When the Treasury releases new data, the clock resets to the official number. This is an estimate between releases, not an official figure.
Why the debt keeps growing
The federal government spends more than it collects in taxes each year. That annual gap is the deficit. Each year's deficit gets added to the total debt. Two-thirds of spending is mandatory (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, interest on the debt) and runs on autopilot. Interest alone now exceeds $1 trillion per year.
What $40 trillion looks like
- Per resident: $117,387 for every person in the United States
- Per second: $93,673 added, every second of every day
- Per day: about $8.1 billion
- Next milestone: $41 trillion, projected around January 2027 at the current pace
Keep learning
- How big is the U.S. national debt?
- Who does the U.S. owe money to?
- What is the federal deficit?
- Where the money went: every recipient
- Get the Ledger Brief every Wednesday
Sources: U.S. Treasury Bureau of the Fiscal Service, debt to the penny (October 5, 2026). Growth rate calculated from Treasury daily debt figures, August to October 2026. Population: U.S. Census Bureau estimate, 342,875,301.