US Treasury yields, 1962 to 2026

Treasury yields are the interest rates the US government pays to borrow, quoted here at five constant maturities: 1, 2, 5, 10, and 30 years. The Federal Reserve Board publishes them in its H.15 release, interpolated from the daily Treasury yield curve, and FRED carries them as series DGS1, DGS2, DGS5, DGS10, and DGS30, in percent, not seasonally adjusted. This chart shows monthly averages of the daily readings.

The five maturities tell one story with different tempers. As of August 2026 the curve slopes upward: 4.05 percent at 1 year, 4.22 at 2 years, 4.37 at 5, 4.66 at 10, and 5.20 at 30. Every maturity peaked in the autumn of 1981, when the 1-year reached 16.72 percent and the 10-year 15.32, and every one bottomed in the 2020 to 2021 stretch, when the 10-year averaged 0.62 percent in July 2020 and the 1-year touched 0.05 in May 2021. The short end follows the federal funds rate closely; the long end prices growth and inflation expectations years out.