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.
<span>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. </span>
<span>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. </span>
<span>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. </span>
<span>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. </span>
<span>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. </span>
<span>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).</span>
