Budget Explorer · City of Philadelphia

Where the money comes from, and where it goes

Comparable revenue, spending, and debt for City of Philadelphia, on the same Census classification used for every city, county, and state in the Library — so the figures line up with peers rather than with the government's own budget book. Latest year: FY ending Jun 30, 2024. City of Philadelphia's own FY2027 budget, in its own structure, follows below.

Audited actuals · Census classification · 1.57M residents

At a glance

Total revenue

$11.3B

$7,208 per resident

Total spending

$13.2B

$8,447 per resident

Spending per resident

$8,447

89th percentile of 71

Debt outstanding

$6.88B

$4,388 per resident · 59th percentile of 70

Own-source share

66%

18th percentile of 71

Capital share

9th percentile of 71

Where the money comes from

$11.3B total

Own-source revenue (taxes, charges, interest) versus aid from other governments. Utility and trust revenue are shown alongside general revenue but run on their own books.

Property tax$810M7%
General sales tax$547M5%
Selective sales taxes$338M3%
Income taxes$3.08B27%
License & other taxes$455M4%
Federal aid$1.16B10%
State & local aid$2.24B20%
Charges & fees$1.14B10%
Interest, fines, other$290M3%
Utility revenue$1.23B11%

Own-source share of general revenue 66% · federal aid 12% · property tax is 15% of taxes

Where it goes

$13.2B total

Current operations plus capital outlay, grouped by Census function. Interest on debt and transfers to other governments are broken out so they are not hidden inside services.

General government$3.76B28%
Health & hospitals$3.08B23%
Public safety$1.69B13%
Environment & housing$1.27B10%
Utilities (water, power, gas)$1.09B8%
Transportation$751M6%
Transfers to other governments$675M5%
Interest on debt$390M3%
Public welfare$358M3%
Culture & recreation$187M1%

Show top functions with operating vs. capital ▸

Function	Category	Operating	Capital	Total
Health	Health & hospitals	$3.07B	$6.3M	$3.08B
General (unallocable)	General government	$1.27B	$43M	$1.31B
Financial administration	General government	$1.30B	—	$1.30B
Police protection	Public safety	$835M	$1.6M	$836M
Gas utility	Utilities (water, power, gas)	$482M	$150M	$632M
Housing & community development	Environment & housing	$628M	—	$628M
Air transportation	Transportation	$282M	$176M	$458M
Water utility	Utilities (water, power, gas)	$168M	$289M	$457M
Judicial & legal	General government	$447M	—	$447M
Central staff services	General government	$412M	—	$412M
Fire protection	Public safety	$401M	$5.3M	$406M
Sewerage	Environment & housing	$358M	$47M	$405M
Public welfare	Public welfare	$358M	—	$358M
Highways	Transportation	$275M	$17M	$292M

Trend · 3 fiscal years

Nominal dollars. The Census Bureau cautions that single-government series are edited only for aggregates — read direction, not decimals.

Revenue

+14% over 2 yrs

$9.91B → $11.3B

Spending

+25% over 2 yrs

$10.6B → $13.2B

Debt outstanding

+24% over 2 yrs

$5.56B → $6.88B

How it compares · 71 cities and counties in the Library

Percentile within the cohort on each place's latest Census year. Higher is not better — the last column says what a high reading means so you can decide whether it matters here.

Measure	City of Philadelphia	Cohort median	Percentile	Higher means
Spending per resident	$8,447	$3,741	89th	more spent per resident
Revenue per resident	$7,208	$3,548	87th	more raised per resident
Taxes per resident	$3,338	$1,328	92nd	heavier own-tax load
Debt per resident	$4,388	$3,865	59th	more borrowed per resident
Own-source share of revenue	66%	81%	18th	less dependent on aid
Federal aid share of revenue	12%	7%	81st	more exposed to federal cuts
Capital share of spending	6%	18%	9th	more building, less operating
Interest share of spending	3%	4%	30th	more spend servicing debt
Debt ÷ annual revenue	0.61×	1.05×	18th	more leveraged

About this data

Census classification categories, not this government's own budget structure. Figures are audited actuals for the fiscal year shown, not the adopted budget.
The Census Bureau edits unit-level data only to produce state and national aggregates and advises against reading it as a precise time series for any single government; treat year-over-year moves under ~5% as noise.
Employee-retirement-system revenue is excluded (published separately by Census). Utility and insurance-trust revenue are shown separately from general revenue.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances (Individual Unit public-use files), unit 422101133602 (Philadelphia City). Retrieved 2026-09-07. Classification manual.

Spot an error, or know a better source for this place's adopted budget? Suggest an edit on the assessment.

Adopted budget · FY2027

City of Philadelphia's own budget, in its own structure, read from its published budget book and checked against the total the document itself prints. This is the current year — more recent than the Census series above, but only comparable to this city's own history. Totals cover 70 departments.

$7.12B total

Director of Finance – Fringe Benefits$1.84B26%
Police Department$935M13%
Fire Department$464M7%
Department of Revenue – Sinking Fund Commission$422M6%
Director of Finance – Contribution to School District$332M5%
Department of Prisons$324M5%
Department of Human Services$235M3%
Department of Streets – Sanitation$190M3%
Director of Finance$169M2%
Mayor – Office of Innovation and Technology$160M2%
Department of Public Health$159M2%
First Judicial District of Pennsylvania$140M2%
All other (58)$1.76B25%

Parsed from the published budget book (pages 90-102) — General Fund operating appropriations, read from Section 2 of the budget ordinance.
Figures are checked against the total the document itself prints before publishing.
Philadelphia publishes no machine-readable adopted budget; its open-data tables stop at FY2019 proposed, and the only current tabular version is a third-party mirror rather than a city source.
General Fund only — the water, aviation and grants funds are appropriated by separate ordinances.
Source: FY2027 Budget in Brief (as approved by Council) (published budget book), retrieved 2026-09-08. Open the source document.

Looking for how this fits City of Philadelphia's capacity to deliver? The fiscal dimension, binding constraint, and pathways live in the City of Philadelphia capacity assessment.