Who owns the most U.S. debt? Around 70 percent of U.S. debt is held by domestic financial actors and institutions in the United States. U.S. Treasuries represent a convenient, liquid, low-risk store of value.
Japan consistently ranks among the countries with the highest national debt. In 2022, the nation's debt was estimated at almost 10 trillion U.S. dollars , while it's GDP is just 4.2 trillion . The Japanese government is currently spending around half of its total tax revenue on servicing its massive debt.
Since the U.S. dollar has a variable exchange rate, however, any sale by any nation holding huge U.S. debt or dollar reserves will trigger the adjustment of the trade balance at the international level. The offloaded U.S. reserves by China will either end up with another nation or will return to the U.S.
For all the focus on China, Japan is actually the top holder of U.S. sovereign debt, with a total of $1.1 trillion.
The best example can be taken from Hong Kong (it is a one of the debt free countries), whose economy has the least debt to GDP ratio. It is an almost debt free country. It has a well-regulated financial system and large foreign reserves.
Which country owes the most debt to China? Pakistan owes the most debt to China, totaling $26.6 billion. This debt primarily funds infrastructure and energy projects, making repayment particularly challenging due to commercial interest rates.
Japan is on the verge of a $400 billion fire sale of U.S. debt. This could break the back of the Treasury market and devastate Americans' finances. The only way to entice more people to buy Treasurys will be to offer higher interest rates, which will cause the interest on the debt to climb even faster.
Japan and China have been the largest foreign holders of US debt for the last two decades. From 2000 to 2023, annual totals are based on data from December, while the 2024 data is updated through April. Inflation adjusted to the 2023 calendar year.
China owns around 2.6% of U.S. debt which it buys because the Chinese yuan is pegged to the dollar. It would be impossible for China to call in all its U.S. debt at once due to the different maturity dates of the U.S. securities that China owns.
United States. The United States boasts both the world's biggest national debt in terms of dollar amount and its largest economy, which resolves to a debt-to GDP ratio of approximately 121.31%.
Federal Borrowing
The federal government borrows money from the public by issuing securities—bills, notes, and bonds—through the Treasury. Treasury securities are attractive to investors because they are: Backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government.
China owns 384,000 acres of American agricultural land. That's a 30% increase just since 2019. And on top of that, they own land near an air force base in North Dakota.
The new report, released this month, illustrates the role of Social Security in shoring up the wealth of middle-class and working-class Americans. If you subtract Social Security from the equation, the top 10% control nearly 70% of the nation's wealth, and the bottom half holds only 3%.
Answer: China is the world's most prosperous country. It just surpassed the United States as the world's most prosperous country. Answer: China, the United States, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Japan, Mexico, and Sweden are the world's wealthiest countries, according to McKinsey & Co.
Today, our deficits are caused mainly by predictable structural factors: our aging baby-boom generation, rising healthcare costs, and a tax system that does not bring in enough money to pay for what the government has promised its citizens. And the more we borrow, the more we pay in interest on that debt.
The following 44 countries were still listed as least developed countries by the UN as of December 2024: Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, ...
India takes the top spot. The world's most populous country owed $38.3bn to the WB at the end of 2022, down by almost $1.5bn from a year earlier. India's outstanding balance is almost double that of the next biggest debtor, Indonesia, with $20.6bn.
Of course, just as with an individual or family, cutting spending and increasing revenue are smart first steps. Beyond that, the government considers things like new taxes, a higher retirement age, removing loopholes from the tax code, and more to reduce annual deficits and the national debt.
First, as discussed by authors such as Hall and Sargent (2011) and Eichengreen and Esteves (2022), the U.S. actually paid off part of the World War II debt by running primary surpluses—by levying taxes in excess of current government spending—over much of the period when the debt/GDP ratio was falling.
Currently, China's total debt stands at around $47.5 trillion, which is less than the US's near $70 trillion. Notably, China holds the largest share of non-financial corporate debt globally, at 28%. Both China and the U.S. are among the countries with the highest debt-to-GDP ratios.