Mortgage debt is the largest form of household debt, consistently making up about 70% of all consumer debt in the United States. As of Q3 2025, mortgage debt amounted to $13.072 trillion, far exceeding other forms of debt such as auto loans ($1.66 trillion) and student loans ($1.65 trillion). It is often the largest financial commitment households have.
Mortgage. Mortgage debt, which makes up the largest percentage of all consumer debt, provides the most financial benefits to consumers.
Advanced Economies Make Up Most of World's Debt
🇺🇸 U.S. The United States continues to lead with $38.3 trillion in government debt, which accounts for just over one third of the global debt pile.
While older models of credit scores used to go as high as 900, you can no longer achieve a 900 credit score. The highest score you can receive today is 850.
As the world's biggest gambling hub, Macao SAR has zero debt, bolstered by billions in gaming revenue and healthy financial reserves. Liechtenstein ranks in second, with virtually no debt and the only country in Europe ranking in the top 10.
The total financial liabilities or gross debt of the Canadian consolidated provincial, territorial and local governments (PTLG) was $1,460 billion in 2021 (the fiscal year ending 31 March 2022), as shown in the table below.
The Worst Kinds of Debt to Have
The oldest example of a perpetual bond was issued on 15 May 1624 by the Dutch water board of Lekdijk Bovendams and sold to Elsken Jorisdochter. Only about five such bonds from the Dutch Golden Age are known to survive by 2023. Another of these bonds, issued in 1648, is currently in the possession of Yale University.
The paradox is that while debt is essential and our economy relies on it, it also brings instability unless it is periodically deleveraged―and that is very hard to do.
The four main types of debt, often overlapping, are Secured (backed by collateral like a house), Unsecured (no collateral, like credit cards), Revolving (flexible credit, like credit cards), and Installment (fixed payments over time, like mortgages/auto loans). Understanding these categories helps manage financial decisions, as they differ in risk, interest rates, and repayment structures.
Jérôme Kerviel is learning one of life's harsher lessons: It stinks to be $6.3 billion in debt. That's how much his fraudulent trades in 2007 and 2008 cost French bank Société Générale, and how much he has been ordered to pay in restitution -- after he gets out of jail in three years.
Inflation adjusted to the 2023 calendar year. As of April 2024, the five countries owning the most US debt are Japan ($1.1 trillion), China ($749.0 billion), the United Kingdom ($690.2 billion), Luxembourg ($373.5 billion), and Canada ($328.7 billion).
Federal Reserve data shows that about 23% of Americans have no debt.
Buffett holds so much of his wealth in Treasury bills because they're easy to access. If he needs to cash out quickly and use the funds for something else, he can. They also offer high interest yields because the government rewards people for essentially loaning it money.
Consequently, China's stake in U.S. debt has more of a binding than a dividing effect on bilateral relations between the two countries. Even if China wished to “call in” its loans, the use of credit as a coercive measure is complicated and often heavily constrained.
Russia recorded a Government Debt to GDP of 16.40 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product in 2024.
It's partly true: most negative items like late payments and collections are removed from your credit report after about seven years, but the underlying debt often still exists, and bankruptcies (Chapter 7) last 10 years, so your credit isn't entirely "clear" but mostly refreshed from old negatives. The 7-year clock starts from the date of the original delinquency, not when you paid it off or sent to collections, and the debt itself can still be pursued by collectors.