Average interest rate on US debt, 2001 to 2026
Average interest rate on US debt stood at $3 in 2026, up 1.7% on the previous period.
The latest reading is 3.41 percent, for June 2026, against 3.35 percent the period before. The data comes directly from the US Treasury's Fiscal Data service, the government's own ledger, and runs from January 2001.
How it is measured
The average interest rate the Treasury pays across all outstanding interest-bearing federal debt, from the Treasury's monthly reporting. It moves slowly by construction: only maturing debt reprices at today's rates, so the average is a long echo of the past decade's rate environment.
What the curve shows
The average rate is 3.41 percent, within a window from 1.56 percent (January 2022) to 6.59 percent (January 2001). Multiply this line by the debt stock and you get the interest-expense series; its slow drift is why interest costs keep rising years after market rates stop.
Why does this move so much slower than market rates?
What happens if rates stay high?
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