In 2021, the government collected $4.05 trillion in revenue.
Fiscal Year refers to the period of time used by the government for accounting and budget purposes. For the federal government, the fiscal year runs from October 1 through September 30.
How much is $4.05 trillion? If you divide it by the U.S. population estimate in 2021, 332.8 million (U.S. Census Bureau), it would equate to a little more than $12,200 in revenue for every individual in the U.S.
In this visualization, one dot represents $1 billion dollars.
Gross domestic product (GDP) measures the size of the nation's economy by the total value of final goods and services that are produced in a year. Gross domestic product is used to compare the economies of different countries, measure growth in the economy, and determine the right monetary policies to address inflation and unemployment.
Where does the money come from? If you lived or worked in the United States in 2021, most likely your contributions are part of the $4.05 trillion. Federal revenue consists mostly of individual, corporate, and social insurance taxes collected from the people who live, work, or do business in the United States each Fiscal Year.
Data Sources and Methodology
The visualization was created using the Monthly Treasury Statement (MTS) as the data source for federal government revenue of the United States. GDP for FY 2021 is based on the economic forecast for the 2022 Mid-Session Review, adjusted for the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) revisions. The revenue-to-gross domestic product ratio is included to provide you with context for the trillions of dollars that come in to the federal government annually. Throughout this page, we use the gross domestic product for the Fiscal Year, not the Calendar Year, in order to facilitate an appropriate comparison.