Federal debt increased by nearly $700 billion this year, according to the Treasury Department, reaching a record of $18.8 trillion or $58,000 per person.
According to the figures published by the Treasury, total outstanding public debt rose from $18.14 trillion on Dec. 31, 2014, to just over $18.82 trillion on Dec. 28, an increase of about $677 billion, or about $1.8 billion per day.
Put in perspective, that represents an increase of more than $5,000 per U.S. household, bringing the household total to nearly $160,000. That falls just short of double the amount owed when President Obama took office in 2009, when each household shared a bit more than $90,000 of the debt.
In spite of the increase, 2015 was a thrifty year for Obama. The debt increased by more than $789 billion in 2014 and by more than $919 billion in 2013.
The federal debt load has increased by more than $8 trillion, or 78 percent, since Obama took office in January 2009, when the debt stood at a relatively paltry $10.6 trillion. It has increased an average of $1.17 trillion each year since then.