Question

Describe the trend in the national debt from 1791 through 2010.

Answer 1

At the end of the 1791 fiscal year (which is the first year of available data from TreasuryDirect.gov), the United States had a total public debt load of $75,463,477. This works out to around $1.75 billion in 2010 dollars. 

At the time, the United States had a population of roughly 5 million people. So, the average US citizen in 1791 owed $350 (in 2010 dollars) as their share of the nation's total public debt load. 

219 years later, at the end of the 2010 fiscal year, the United States had a total debt load of around $13.56 trillion. Each of the nation's 308 million citizens owed around $45,800 as their share of the US public debt load at the end of the 2010 fiscal year. 

Obviously things have changed DRASTICALLY in the country over the past 219 years, but facts are facts and numbers are numbers - the USA has added an average of $60 billion to its debt load per year over the last 219 years, with the bulk of this taking place over the last few decades. 

There was a time, believe it or not, when the United States was debt-free. In 1835 and 1836, the United States reported owing just $33,733 and $37,513, respectively. This works out to less than $1 million in 2010 dollars. 

One year later, the "Panic of 1837" hit, resulting in a multi-year depression. By 1843, the United States owed $32,742,922, which works out to a little less than $1 billion in 2010 dollars. 

This figure was more than halved by the end of the 1846 fiscal year, when the United States reported owing $15.5 million (about $444 million in 2010 dollars).