Debt by Country
Gross general government debt (includes state/local sub-national debt, not netted against financial assets) as a share of GDP, across 20 major OECD economies. This ratio is useful because it relates a country's debt to the scale of its economy, making borrowing capacity easier to compare across countries and over time. But it can obscure critical details such as interest rates, currency composition, inflation versus productivity, foreign versus domestic ownership, and future entitlement liabilities — several of which are broken out in the columns below.
| Country | Gross Debt (% of GDP) | Year | Change vs. Prior Year | Interest/Revenue | Foreign-Held % | Credit Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Japan | 218.5% | 2024 | ▼ -5.43% | — | — | |
| Italy | 148.7% | 2025 | ▲ +0.62% | 9.4% | 28.0%Eurostat | |
| United States | 136.8% | 2025 | ▼ -0.36% | 20.3% | — | |
| Canada | 118.8% | 2025 | ▲ +1.91% | 8.4% | — | |
| France | 116.2% | 2025 | ▲ +1.09% | 4.2% | 51.7%Eurostat | |
| Belgium | 108.6% | 2025 | ▲ +3.63% | 4.5% | 58.1%Eurostat | |
| Spain | 106.6% | 2025 | ▼ -2.19% | 6.5% | 42.9%Eurostat | |
| United Kingdom | 94.6% | 2025 | ▲ +2.22% | 8.3% | — | |
| Australia | 73.6% | 2025 | ▲ +3.14% | 3.1% | — | |
| Poland | 72.9% | 2025 | ▲ +8.81% | 5.2% | 26.7%Eurostat | |
| Germany | 62.8% | 2025 | ▼ -0.18% | 2.5% | 47.6%Eurostat | |
| Mexico | 62.3% | 2024 | ▲ +11.27% | 20.0% | — | |
| Sweden | 59.2% | 2025 | ▲ +5.88% | 1.1% | 12.3%Eurostat | |
| South Korea | 58.0% | 2025 | ▲ +2.56% | 5.3% | — | |
| Netherlands | 47.8% | 2025 | ▼ -0.63% | 1.7% | 40.2%Eurostat | |
| Switzerland | 41.4% | 2025 | ▲ +1.44% | 0.9% | — |
Sources: OECD, Government at a Glance (General Government Gross Debt); World Bank, World Development Indicators (Interest Payments, % of Revenue). Foreign-Held % is calculated from two different sources depending on the country and is not available for every country: U.S. Department of the Treasury, Treasury International Capital (TIC) system for the United States; Eurostat, General Government Gross Debt by Counterpart Sector (via DBnomics) for Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, and Poland. It isn't currently available for the remaining countries in the table — those rows show "—" rather than an estimate. Credit ratings are S&P long-term foreign-currency sovereign ratings, entered manually and current as of 2026-08-10 — S&P doesn't offer a free public API, and ratings change infrequently enough that hand-updating this list when a change is announced is more reliable than trying to automate it. Informational only, not financial advice.