Overview
National Debt sources data directly from the US Treasury Fiscal Data API, which is updated daily. Historical data is available back to 1993, enabling trend analysis and historical comparisons.
Live Test US National Debt Source →
Formula
One function covers the whole catalog: the first argument names the source, the rest are its inputs, and the "field" pair says which single value lands in the cell. Formulas covers the grammar that applies to all of them.
=VERVE("nationaldebt", "field", "recordDate")=VERVE.CALL("nationaldebt", "field", "recordDate")Inputs
Required inputs are positional, in the order below. Everything else is passed as a "name", value pair after them — the same shape as SUMIFS. Premium inputs are accepted on every plan but only take effect on plans that include them.
| Input | Type | Where it goes | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
dateOptional | string | "date", value | Optional date in YYYY-MM-DD format for historical lookup. Omit for current data. date |
Passing an option
=VERVE("nationaldebt", "date", "2023-06-15")=VERVE.CALL("nationaldebt", "date", "2023-06-15")What lands in your sheet
The "field" pair is what makes the formula resolve to one cell. Its value is a dot-path from the table below, so swapping it is how you pull a different value — one formula per column.
Seeing everything at once
Drop the "field" pair and the formula returns the whole response instead: two columns, field name on the left and value on the right, spilling from the cell you typed in.
=VERVE("nationaldebt")=VERVE.CALL("nationaldebt")The second row's table would land on top of the first's, and every cell after the first reads #REF! (#SPILL! in Excel). Keep one per sheet, or name a field, and leave the cells below and to the right empty.
Response fields
Paths are relative to data. Each one is exactly what the "field" pair accepts, so swapping it is how you pull a different value into a cell. On a plan without a Premium field the cell reads #PREMIUM(field) rather than a value, so a locked field never looks like a real answer.
| Use as "field" | Type | Example cell value | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
date | string | 2026-09-14 | Date of the national debt data (YYYY-MM-DD format) |
recordDate | string | 2026-09-14 | Treasury record date the figures come from (YYYY-MM-DD); the nearest prior business day when the requested date has no record |
totalDebt | number | 40054421967786.91 | Total US national debt in dollars |
totalDebtFormatted | string | $40.05 trillion | Total debt formatted as readable currency string |
publicDebt | number | 32358452350574.73 | US debt held by the public in dollars |
publicDebtFormatted | string | $32.36 trillion | Public debt formatted as readable currency string |
intragovernmentalDebtPremium | number | 7695969617212.18 | Intragovernmental debt holdings in dollars |
intragovernmentalDebtFormattedPremium | string | $7.70 trillion | Intragovernmental debt formatted as currency string |
perCapitaPremium | number | 119565 | Estimated national debt per person in dollars |
perCapitaFormattedPremium | string | $119,565 | Per capita debt formatted as currency string |
population | number | 335000000 | US population used for per capita calculations |
publicDebtRatio | number | 80.79 | Public debt as percentage of total debt |
perHouseholdPremium | number | 298913.6 | Estimated national debt per household in dollars |
perHouseholdFormattedPremium | string | $298,914 | Per household debt formatted as currency string |
When a cell doesn't fill
A failed lookup returns readable text starting with #ERR rather than a spreadsheet error, because Excel cannot show a custom message on a real error — you would get a bare #VALUE! with no reason. The trade-off is that IFERROR() will not catch it; test with LEFT(cell, 4) = "#ERR" instead. Error handling covers the rest.
| Cell reads | What happened |
|---|---|
#ERR Not connected | No API key saved. Open the side panel and connect your account. |
#ERR Replace <name> with a cell or value | A preview formula was copied as-is. Swap the placeholder for a cell reference. |
#ERR No "x" in nationaldebt | An option name this source does not take. The message lists the ones it does. |
#ERR No data point "…" | The "field" path is not in the response. Check it against the table above. |
#PREMIUM(field) | The field exists but your plan does not include it. |
#ERR Out of credits | The cycle's credits are spent. Usage resets on your billing date. |
Before the formula works
The add-in reads the API key you saved once in the side panel — the key never goes in the formula, so a shared sheet does not leak it and a collaborator without access simply sees the last calculated values.
- Install the add-in for Google Sheets or Excel.
- Open the side panel and sign in, or paste a key from your dashboard.
- Type the formula above into any cell.
Use cases
- Financial Dashboards
- Display real-time national debt figures on financial dashboards and economic monitoring tools
- Economic Research
- Analyze historical debt trends for economic research and policy analysis
- Educational Tools
- Build educational applications showing government debt and per-capita calculations
- News Applications
- Provide up-to-date debt figures for news and media applications
Other ways to use US National Debt
Set up US National Debt on VerveSheets, or reach the same source a different way. Your VerveSheets account and credits work on all of them — one key, one balance.
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