Each year, CBO releases a set of four budget infographics that provide a detailed look at the past fiscal year as well as broader trends over the past few decades. Today, CBO published the latest infographics showing the federal budget results for fiscal year 2023.
These infographics help people understand how much the federal government spends and takes in each year and what programs and revenue sources account for the largest portions of those budgetary flows.
As highlighted in the first infographic, the government ran a budget deficit of $1.7 trillion in 2023, equal to 6.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), well above the 3.7 percent average over the past 50 years. The government’s net interest costs totaled $659 billion in 2023, an 87 percent increase from the amount in 2021.
The first two infographics (which feature the budgetary overview and mandatory spending) show that Social Security and Medicare accounted for more than one-third of federal spending in 2023 and the majority of mandatory spending; combined, spending for those programs eclipsed discretionary spending, which is presented in the third infographic. Outlays for nondefense programs accounted for more than half of the discretionary total. Revenues (shown in the fourth infographic) were slightly less, as a percentage of GDP, than the average over the past 20 years.
You can view the infographics for 2023 below, including an interactive version of the one about the overall federal budget:
- The Federal Budget in Fiscal Year 2023
- Mandatory Spending in Fiscal Year 2023
- Discretionary Spending in Fiscal Year 2023
- Revenues in Fiscal Year 2023
Infographics for other years are also available.
Dan Ready is an analyst in CBO’s Budget Analysis Division.