Source: US Congressional Budget Office
The Congressional Budget Office has regularly published a report that documents trends in public spending for infrastructure. Here, CBO has updated the exhibits featured in that report through 2023.
There are six types of transportation and water infrastructure that are paid for largely by the public sector:
- Highways,
- Mass transit and rail,
- Aviation,
- Water transportation,
- Water resources, and
- Water utilities.
Federal, state, and local governments spent $626 billion on those types of infrastructure in 2023. That amount equaled about 2.3 percent of gross domestic product. Highway spending accounted for the largest component of that total, $249 billion, followed by spending on water utilities and mass transit and rail.