By state
The national debt, state by state
No state owes the federal debt. But divided by population, it comes to $118,736 for every resident — and the states differ a great deal in what they send to Washington, what comes back and what their households owe themselves.
What this shows
The debt is federal, but its causes and its consequences fall unevenly across the states in ways a single national figure cannot show. This page puts three things side by side for each state, and they are not the same kind of thing: federal tax collected there, federal money paid to it, and the private household debt owed by its residents.
That last column is not the national debt and is deliberately kept apart from it. Mixing household borrowing with government borrowing is common and misleading; the two behave nothing alike. The note under each table explains why even taxes and grants are not cleanly comparable at the state level, since a tax is counted where it is filed and a company can file in any state it chooses.
Map of the 50 states and DC
Choose a figure, then point at or tap a state. The same numbers are in the table of all states below.
Federal tax collected per resident
- Lower
- $5,289–$10,650
- $10,717–$12,154
- $12,564–$14,466
- $14,557–$17,902
- $19,478–$60,067
- Higher
Tab into the map, then use the arrow keys to move between states in alphabetical order, or pick a state from the list above the map. Enter opens a state’s page where one exists. Every value is also listed in the table of all states below.
The ten largest states in detail
- California$4.67 trillionpopulation share of the debt · 11.5% of US residents
- Texas$3.77 trillionpopulation share of the debt · 9.3% of US residents
- Florida$2.79 trillionpopulation share of the debt · 6.9% of US residents
- New York$2.38 trillionpopulation share of the debt · 5.9% of US residents
- Pennsylvania$1.55 trillionpopulation share of the debt · 3.8% of US residents
- Illinois$1.51 trillionpopulation share of the debt · 3.7% of US residents
- Ohio$1.41 trillionpopulation share of the debt · 3.5% of US residents
- Georgia$1.34 trillionpopulation share of the debt · 3.3% of US residents
- North Carolina$1.33 trillionpopulation share of the debt · 3.3% of US residents
- Michigan$1.20 trillionpopulation share of the debt · 3.0% of US residents
All 50 states and DC
Sorted by population. Per-resident figures divide each total by the Census population estimate. Household debt is per adult with a credit record, not per resident.
| State | Residents | Population share of debt | Federal tax collected / resident | Federal grants / resident | Household debt / adult* | Unemployment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | 39.4 million | $4.67 trillion | $19,478 | $862 | $87,850 | 5.1% |
| Texas | 31.7 million | $3.77 trillion | $15,122 | $987 | $60,020 | 4.4% |
| Florida | 23.5 million | $2.79 trillion | $15,257 | $792 | $61,890 | 4.4% |
| New York | 20.0 million | $2.38 trillion | $20,565 | $1,178 | $59,420 | 4.3% |
| Pennsylvania | 13.1 million | $1.55 trillion | $14,466 | $1,054 | $50,360 | 3.6% |
| Illinois | 12.7 million | $1.51 trillion | $17,902 | $890 | $54,050 | 4.6% |
| Ohio | 11.9 million | $1.41 trillion | $17,663 | $792 | $46,780 | 3.4% |
| Georgia | 11.3 million | $1.34 trillion | $12,837 | $850 | $62,070 | 3.3% |
| North Carolina | 11.2 million | $1.33 trillion | $11,420 | $1,197 | $61,070 | 3.4% |
| Michigan | 10.1 million | $1.20 trillion | $11,052 | $818 | $48,050 | 5.0% |
| New Jersey | 9.5 million | $1.13 trillion | $20,118 | $738 | $69,550 | 4.2% |
| Virginia | 8.9 million | $1.05 trillion | $14,183 | $765 | $77,060 | 3.6% |
| Washington | 8.0 million | $950 billion | $21,534 | $995 | $85,880 | 4.8% |
| Arizona | 7.6 million | $905 billion | $10,717 | $722 | $70,850 | 4.9% |
| Tennessee | 7.3 million | $869 billion | $12,895 | $815 | $56,690 | 3.4% |
| Massachusetts | 7.2 million | $849 billion | $25,127 | $1,309 | $77,400 | 4.3% |
| Indiana | 7.0 million | $828 billion | $11,856 | $733 | $49,330 | 3.4% |
| Missouri | 6.3 million | $745 billion | $15,142 | $933 | $49,420 | 3.6% |
| Maryland | 6.3 million | $744 billion | $15,070 | $1,125 | $81,390 | 3.9% |
| Colorado | 6.0 million | $714 billion | $16,071 | $808 | $92,690 | 4.1% |
| Wisconsin | 6.0 million | $709 billion | $12,785 | $785 | $49,210 | 3.2% |
| Minnesota | 5.8 million | $692 billion | $21,656 | $1,016 | $63,860 | 4.5% |
| South Carolina | 5.6 million | $661 billion | $7,996 | $830 | $59,460 | 4.0% |
| Alabama | 5.2 million | $617 billion | $7,617 | $955 | $48,910 | 3.5% |
| Louisiana | 4.6 million | $548 billion | $12,564 | $1,245 | $48,250 | 4.0% |
| Kentucky | 4.6 million | $547 billion | $11,717 | $1,011 | $43,160 | 4.7% |
| Oregon | 4.3 million | $507 billion | $10,650 | $1,029 | $69,640 | 5.0% |
| Oklahoma | 4.1 million | $490 billion | $9,493 | $1,081 | $43,170 | 4.2% |
| Connecticut | 3.7 million | $438 billion | $20,528 | $1,176 | $67,530 | 5.1% |
| Utah | 3.5 million | $420 billion | $12,154 | $678 | $83,350 | 3.5% |
| Nevada | 3.3 million | $390 billion | $11,806 | $620 | $71,260 | 4.7% |
| Iowa | 3.2 million | $385 billion | $11,343 | $920 | $47,410 | 3.2% |
| Arkansas | 3.1 million | $370 billion | $13,482 | $910 | $43,090 | 3.9% |
| Kansas | 3.0 million | $354 billion | $11,225 | $801 | $46,720 | 3.8% |
| Mississippi | 3.0 million | $351 billion | $5,471 | $1,043 | $41,450 | 3.3% |
| New Mexico | 2.1 million | $252 billion | $6,539 | $1,595 | $49,260 | 4.7% |
| Idaho | 2.0 million | $241 billion | $9,097 | $703 | $69,450 | 3.6% |
| Nebraska | 2.0 million | $240 billion | $21,884 | $1,026 | $49,530 | 2.9% |
| West Virginia | 1.8 million | $210 billion | $5,289 | $1,224 | $37,850 | 4.0% |
| Hawaii | 1.4 million | $170 billion | $8,712 | $1,170 | $83,480 | 2.8% |
| New Hampshire | 1.4 million | $168 billion | $12,643 | $720 | $66,480 | 2.6% |
| Maine | 1.4 million | $168 billion | $9,336 | $1,306 | $53,360 | 3.3% |
| Montana | 1.1 million | $136 billion | $13,071 | $1,516 | $58,390 | 3.1% |
| Rhode Island | 1.1 million | $132 billion | $15,930 | $1,469 | $60,090 | 3.6% |
| Delaware | 1.1 million | $126 billion | $20,968 | $1,106 | $66,170 | 4.6% |
| South Dakota | 935.1 thousand | $111 billion | $15,406 | $1,602 | $52,270 | 2.0% |
| North Dakota | 799.4 thousand | $95 billion | $12,865 | $1,886 | $53,300 | 2.2% |
| Alaska | 737.3 thousand | $88 billion | $10,717 | $4,484 | $69,460 | 4.3% |
| District of Columbia | 693.6 thousand | $82 billion | $60,067 | $11,685 | $102,400 | 5.6% |
| Vermont | 644.7 thousand | $77 billion | $10,008 | $1,869 | $52,910 | 2.6% |
| Wyoming | 588.8 thousand | $70 billion | $14,557 | $1,723 | $57,120 | 3.0% |
Tax collected: IRS, fiscal year 2025. Federal grants: USAspending, fiscal year 2026. *Household debt: New York Fed Consumer Credit Panel / Equifax, Q4 2025. Unemployment: BLS, September 2026. National debt as of October 27, 2026.
How to read these numbers
The population share is an illustration, not a bill. The federal government borrows in its own name and repays from federal revenue. Dividing the debt by each state’s share of the population simply shows the scale in terms of the people living there.
Federal tax collected is counted where it is filed. The IRS records payroll taxes withheld by an employer, and corporate income taxes, in the state where the company files — often its headquarters. States with many large employers and head offices therefore appear to pay far more per resident than their residents actually earn and owe.
Federal grants, not all federal spending. Grants — Medicaid, highway, education and hundreds of smaller programs — are recorded with the state and local bodies that receive them, which makes them comparable across states. Total federal contract and payment obligations are not compared by state: USAspending records large Medicare payments where the claims contractor or insurer is based. In fiscal year 2025 that placed about $90 billion of health spending on North Dakota, home of a major Medicare contractor.
For those reasons taxes and grants are shown side by side but never subtracted. A careful state-by-state balance of payments, adjusted for these effects, is published by the Rockefeller Institute of Government.
Household debt is private debt. It is what residents owe on mortgages, cars, credit cards and student loans — a separate thing from the national debt, shown here because it is the debt people in a state actually carry. The figure is per adult with a credit record.
Measured against the size of the whole economy instead, see debt to GDP; for the national figure per person and per taxpayer, see debt per person.
Sources
- PopulationUS Census Bureau — Population Estimatesvintage 2025
- GDP by stateUS Bureau of Economic Analysis — SAGDP12025
- Household debtNew York Fed — State Level Household Debt StatisticsQ4 2025
- Federal tax collectedIRS Data Book — Table 5, gross collections by stateFY 2025
- Federal grantsUSAspending.gov — grants by place of performanceFY 2026
- UnemploymentUS Bureau of Labor Statistics — Local Area Unemployment StatisticsSeptember 2026
Household debt data: New York Fed Consumer Credit Panel / Equifax. © 2026 Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Content from the New York Fed subject to the Terms of Use at newyorkfed.org.
All figures are fetched from the publishers above, either when this site is built or by its own data function; your browser does not contact them. This site is independent and is not affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by the Federal Reserve System, any Federal Reserve Bank or any government agency. Nothing here is financial advice.