The national debt's past, present, and future 

• The national debt has grown by $25.73 trillion since 1993. The largest single-term increases were under President Barack Obama’s first term in response to the Great Recession and under President Donald Trump to combat the many effects of the pandemic. 
   
• The national debt began at approximately $4.23 trillion under President Bill Clinton and grew to $5.73 trillion. Under President Joe Biden, the national debt has risen from $27.77 trillion to $31.46 trillion. (Read the article for more on how the debt grew under administrations since 1993.)
   
• In its 2022 long-term outlook, the Congressional Budget Office projected that debt as a percentage of gross domestic product will keep growing over the next 30 years. Persistently increasing budget deficits, which are already high, could cause federal debt held by the public to rise further. 

Learn more — and get a refresher on the difference between debt and deficit right here. See even more charts on the federal budget in the State of the Union in Numbers.


What is carbon capture? Where is it happening in the US? 

Last year’s Inflation Reduction Act contained funds for climate and clean energy incentives, including carbon capture and storage. USAFacts explains this emerging green technology in this new article, with an eye on what states have projects in the works.

• Carbon capture and storage traps carbon dioxide, then transfers it to facilities that store it in natural saline reservoirs, depleted oil/gas fields, or other stable, high-capacity formations. Capture can happen at carbon-emitting sources such as coal-fired power plants or directly from the atmosphere.  

• An Energy Department database lists 417 carbon capture projects as of January 2023, with 169 active projects. The rest are completed but not yet active, on hold, potential, or even terminated. 
   
• Petra Nova was the nation’s first industrial-scale power plant with carbon capture and storage technology. It trapped approximately 1.4 million tons of carbon annually from 2017 to 2021 from coal power plant emissions and transported them to an oil field in Jackson County, Texas. Petra Nova shut down in 2021

Click here to learn about the obstacles to implementing carbon capture.

Data behind the news

It's that time of year again: people in all but two states sprang forward an hour yesterday. Which 11 states have passed legislation asking to move permanently to daylight saving time? Find out here.

March is Women’s History Month. To mark the occasion, USAFacts compiled 10 facts about US women, from labor force participation to members of Congress.

Test your knowledge of what’s new at USAFacts with the weekly facts quiz.  

One last fact

In February, about 143,000 people received notifications that their Social Security disability benefits were either approved or denied. Regardless of the applicant's condition or their benefit outcome, new applicants receiving a decision last month had waited an average 220 days, or seven months and 10 days, for that notification.