Just like you pay down your credit card or your mortgage on a monthly basis, D.C. has to pay off debt it has accrued for everything from simply keeping city agencies running to building Nationals Park. D.C. isn’t some alien entity, though; it represents the 630,000 people who live in the city, so that means that we’re on the hook for the city’s spending habits.

The Comprehensive Annual Financial Report released yesterday quantified that debt and how much each resident would have to kick in to pay it off in one go: the city had $7.9 billion in debt in fiscal 2012, or $12,538 for every resident.

If that seems high, it is, at least relative to other jurisdictions in the country. City officials defend the debt by saying that D.C. has to borrow like a city, county and state, and that the debt limit remains manageable given the hot real estate market and growing population. Also, high debt isn’t necessarily a bad thing; in D.C., the percentage that the city can pay as a proportion of its revenues is a more important measure, because it’s limited to 12 percent by law.

Much like a normal person would, D.C. pays off its debts incrementally, and last year it dedicated $627 million to debt servicing, while this year it will put $691 million towards it. Most of that will still be interest payments, though: only $300 million will go to the principal this year, with the remaining $391 million covering interest on the debt.