Who absorbs the debt: Treasury auctions since 1979

Total accepted per calendar year, USD trillions, stacked by security class. Two step-changes stand out: gross issuance rose from $4.49T in 2007 to $8.50T in 2009 (the GFC deficits), and from $12.00T in 2019 to $20.97T in 2020 (the pandemic response), reaching $30.75T in 2025. Bills dominate the gross total because they mature and roll within a year; 1979 and 2026 are partial years (the record begins Oct 31, 1979; the latest result is Aug 13, 2026).

The bid-to-cover ratio is total bids received divided by the amount accepted; higher means stronger demand. Annual averages by security class. The field is effectively complete at source only from 2000 (7,825 of 7,831 records since then carry it, against only 35 of 3,249 earlier records), so the chart starts there rather than showing a false pre-2000 gap.

Annual US bid-to-cover ratios for nominal notes and bonds by original term over the full period shown. The class averages above mix maturities; this splits the coupon curve into its seven original auction terms, with reopenings grouped under their original term (a 9-year 10-month reopening counts as 10-Year). In 2025 the 10-Year averaged 2.54x against a 2010–2019 average of 2.72x. The 20-Year line is empty between its 1986 suspension and the 2020 revival; 6 nominal note/bond results since 2000 on odd original terms (29-Year 9-Month and 30-Year 3-Month bonds) are excluded from the tenor grouping.Unweighted annual mean bid-to-cover per original term, nominal notes and bonds, 2000 to 2026.

Annual US high-yield-minus-median-yield spreads in basis points for nominal notes and bonds over the full period shown. The dealer-convention auction tail (stop yield minus the when-issued rate at the bid deadline) is not in the published dataset, so it is not shown. What the results do publish is the median accepted yield next to the high: their spread, in basis points, is the width of the top half of the accepted-bid distribution, and it widens when the marginal buyer demands visibly more than the typical one. In 2025 the 10-Year averaged 5.7 bp vs 4.3 bp across 2010–2019. 1,621 of 1,621 tenor-grouped results since 2000 carry both fields.Annual mean of (high_yield - avg_med_yield) in basis points per original term, nominal notes and bonds, 2000 to 2026.