The debt of the United States government has been spiraling out of control, and many people are beginning to worry about the prospect of paying it off. The interest on the debt has become a signifant component of the U.S. Budget. The chart below illustrates the growth in the public debt over the years. The figures represent the official historical figures of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

Please note that the dollar amounts are in billions of dollars and are not adjusted for inflation. The term "deficit" referrs to the annual increase to the overall debt figures illustrated below. The figures in the table represent the end-of-year figures.

To help put some of the staggering numbers into perspective, let us take the most recent figure from 2003 into consideration. The total deficit on 31 December 2003 was 3,913.6 billion dollars, or 3.9 trillion dollars. When you devide this figure by 282 million, which is the entire population of the United States, you are left with over $13,800 for every man, woman and child!

year	debt in billions of dollars
1962	$248.0
1963	$254.0
1964	$256.8
1965	$260.8
1966	$263.7
1967	$266.6
1968	$289.5
1969	$278.1
1970	$283.2
1971	$303.0
1972	$322.4
1973	$340.9
1974	$343.7
1975	$394.7
1976	$477.4
1977	$549.1
1978	$607.1
1979	$640.3
1980	$711.9
1981	$789.4
1982	$924.6
1983	$1,137.3
1984	$1,307.0
1985	$1,507.3
1986	$1,740.6
1987	$1,889.8
1988	$2,051.6
1989	$2,190.7
1990	$2,411.6
1991	$2,689.0
1992	$2,999.7
1993	$3,248.4
1994	$3,433.1
1995	$3,604.4
1996	$3,734.1
1997	$3,772.3
1998	$3,721.1
1999	$3,632.4
2000	$3,409.8
2001	$3,319.6
2002	$3,540.4
2003	$3,913.6