- This is a list of the gross national debt of 178 countries, showing the variation in debt levels from Venezuela at 234% of GDP to Turkmenistan at 4.6% of GDP.
- National debt refers to the amount of total government debt a country has. This is also referred to as ‘public sector debt’.
- It is compiled using data from the IMF.
- Note: National debt is different to ‘External debt‘ – External debt includes all the debt a country (both private and public sector) owes to foreigners.
- Updated 19 Dec 2025
Debt of selected economies
List of National Debt by Country
Levels of general gross government debt. Debt levels as % of GDP for 2024 (accessed Dec 2025)
Full List of Countries debt share
| Debt % GDP | ||
| 1 | Japan | 236.7 |
| 2 | Venezuela | 164.3 |
| 3 | Greece | 150.9 |
| 4 | Italy | 135.3 |
| 5 | United States | 120.8 |
| 6 | France | 113.1 |
| 7 | Canada | 110.8 |
| 8 | Belgium | 104.5 |
| 9 | Spain | 101.8 |
| 10 | United Kingdom | 101.3 |
| 11 | Portugal | 94.9 |
| 14 | Egypt | 90.9 |
| 15 | Ukraine | 89.8 |
| 16 | China | 88.3 |
| 17 | El Salvador | 87.6 |
| 18 | Brazil | 87.3 |
| 19 | Finland | 82.5 |
| 20 | India | 81.3 |
| 21 | Austria | 81.2 |
| 22 | Hungary | 73.5 |
| 23 | Yemen | 70.9 |
| 24 | Malaysia | 70.4 |
| 25 | Israel | 67.8 |
| 26 | Slovenia | 67.0 |
| 27 | Cyprus | 65.3 |
| 28 | Germany | 63.9 |
| 29 | Montenegro | 62.6 |
| 30 | Colombia | 61.3 |
| 31 | Costa Rica | 60.2 |
| 32 | Iceland | 59.1 |
| 33 | Slovak Republic | 58.0 |
| 34 | Croatia | 57.6 |
| 35 | Thailand | 57.2 |
| 36 | Philippines | 57.1 |
| 37 | Panama | 56.6 |
| 38 | Albania | 55.7 |
| 39 | Poland | 55.3 |
| 40 | North Macedonia | 54.8 |
| 41 | Romania | 54.6 |
| 42 | Nigeria | 52.9 |
| 43 | Korea, Republic of | 52.5 |
| 45 | Australia | 49.8 |
| 46 | Tanzania | 48.2 |
| 47 | Malta | 47.4 |
| 48 | Latvia | 47.4 |
| 49 | Serbia | 44.5 |
| 50 | Belarus | 44.4 |
| 51 | Mongolia | 44.4 |
| 52 | Netherlands | 43.2 |
| 53 | Czech Republic | 43.0 |
| 54 | Norway | 42.7 |
| 55 | Chile | 42.0 |
| 56 | Honduras | 41.1 |
| 57 | Ireland | 41.1 |
| 58 | Indonesia | 40.2 |
| 59 | Nicaragua | 39.1 |
| 60 | Lithuania | 38.2 |
| 61 | Moldova | 38.1 |
| 62 | Georgia | 37.9 |
| 63 | Switzerland | 37.6 |
| 65 | Vietnam | 32.9 |
| 66 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 32.8 |
| 67 | Uzbekistan | 32.6 |
| 68 | Sweden | 32.6 |
| 69 | Ethiopia | 32.3 |
| 70 | United Arab Emirates | 32.1 |
| 71 | Peru | 30.9 |
| 72 | Tajikistan | 29.5 |
| 73 | Denmark | 28.0 |
| 74 | Cambodia | 26.6 |
| 75 | Taiwan Province of China | 26.2 |
| 76 | Luxembourg | 26.0 |
| 77 | Türkiye | 26.0 |
| 78 | Kazakhstan | 24.8 |
| 79 | Bulgaria | 24.1 |
| 80 | Estonia | 23.6 |
| 81 | Russian Federation | 20.3 |
| 82 | Congo, | 19.3 |
| 83 | Nauru | 17.6 |
| 84 | Kosovo | 16.9 |
| 87 | Kiribati | 9.9 |
| 88 | Turkmenistan | 4.6 |
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Source: IMFÂ
Source: IMF DataSet, accessed 1 September 2021
Highest levels of Government debt in the world
The country with probably the biggest debt problem is Venezuela. Because of hyperinflation, sanctions, a collapsing economy and a failure to collect tax revenues they can’t even borrow on international markets.
The country with the highest debt to GDP ratio in 2020 was Japan (234%) – a reflection of an ageing population. The Japanese government is able to borrow from private individuals in Japan because of high saving rates. But, as Japan sees a return of inflation and higher debt, this is becoming more problematic.
Lowest levels of government debt in the world
The country with the lowest levels of debt is Turkmenistan – an reflection of its natural-gas–based economic model and political choices, rather than broad economic strength. Turkmenistan has some of the world’s largest gas reserves and gas exports (especially to China) generate large foreign-currency inflows. The government often funds spending from energy revenues, reducing the need to borrow
Some very poor countries like Afghanistan, Congo and Haiti have perhaps surprisingly low levels of debt. One reason is that the country does not have functioning bond markets. There is so much uncertainty that governments do not have the opportunity to borrow.
Problems of national debt
High levels of national debt can cause these potential problems
- Requirement of higher taxes and/or lower spending
- Higher debt interest payments
- Pressure to print money – causing inflation.
- Debt financed by overseas borrowing can lead to external pressure
- Crowding out of the private sector
See: more problems of government borrowing
How much can a government borrow?
- Japan’s national debt is 236% of GDP and has been high for a couple of decades. This reflects the ability of Japan to borrow from domestic citizens. Despite prolonged periods of high debt, interest rates are still low because markets feel the government is still solvent.
- A developing economy like Argentina has a track record of default on debt, therefore markets are less willing to lend money to the government. Therefore when debt levels in Argentina increase it has a greater effect on pushing up interest rates.
Factors that depend on how much a government can borrow include
- Default rates of government
- Inflationary pressures. High inflation will make investors less willing to buy government bonds because they will devalue due to inflation
- Can the government print its own money? If the government can print money it can avoid liquidity issues, though there is potential danger of inflation.
- What are the prospects for economic growth? Higher economic growth makes it easier to reduce debt to GDP ratios over time.
- How much can a government borrow?
Difference between debt and deficit
Government debt is the total amount of outstanding liabilities. The deficit is the annual amount by which spending exceeds income. The debt is the accumulation of past deficits.
For example in 2025, the US deficit was $1.8 trillion The US total debt is $38 trillion.
Causes of national debt
This graph for US national debt shows how national crisis leads to a rise in government borrowing. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Government debt enabled the US government to finance the short-term costs of the two world wars. It also enabled the government to respond to the crisis of the 2008 financial crash and the 2020 Covid crisis. Causes of national debt can include
- Recession – tax revenues fall when the economy shrinks. Also the government spend more on unemployment benefits
- Investment – Governments might borrow to build new roads, schools and hospitals.
- Finance war –
- Demographic changes and welfare spending. An ageing population tends to place more strain on government finances with older people requiring more health care spending, pensions and also they pay less income tax.
- Political decisions. Some governments may support higher spending on welfare programmes, whearas other governments may target a balanced budget.
Related
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Readers Question
About The Author
Moderator, do any countries have a national surplus
(as opposed to national debt)?
American citizens, our national debt is more or less almost 100 percent of GDP now, but was only 60 percent give or take 10 years ago, with a very recent sharp upward spike. fiddle with the values on this page (very good) to see
its now almost $40,000 per citizen now not including the crushing state debts such as California. Argentina and
Brazil had currency crises at lower GDP levels, time to wake up and tell your friends, or we will wake up some day and find out China and other countries are not buying our T-bills anymore. (China is at 18% debt to GDP- and they are bailing out our spending, shame on us!) When the rest of the world and China turn off the spigot maybe your nest egg will be worth 25 cents on the dollar or less and you will be saying “what happened?” I know this sounds crazy but what is crazy is $40,000 National debt per person when many are not making a living such as retired, children etc. It is a train wreck that we can avoid but cannot continue as the interest mounts. No entity can spend more than they make.
Lets not be another Argentina, read about their pain They were down to bartering goods, currency was worthless. Lets tell our elected officials we need higher taxes and lower spending! Because voters, nasty as that sounds, the Chinese will not piss away loans that we are reaching the point of not being able to repay, and remember look at the figures, they know more about finance than us…and we could default. Too bad, the dollar could have stayed the world currency but it won’t, we do not have the political will.
The Chinese Yuan will quietly become the international trading currency. Sad, we really had a good country here, and we are blowing it.
Marcus,
Japan’s debt is sustainable because the interest rates for yen denominated debt is practically 0%. If you have a savings account with the Japan post office (the biggest bank in the world by pure deposits), then your interest rate is 0.0001% p.a. The Bank of Japan keeps its interest rates low and so it is really a borrower’s market now.
Here is another extreme example. Assuming you get a fixed rate mortgage over a 35-year period, can you guess what the interest rate on it is? About 2.8%…
Could someone please help me answer these questions.
Who runs the IMF and World bank?
Which country’s are not in debt to them?
Im having trouble understanding where the money to pay back debt will come from, as every county I can think of owes them money.
Basically, Who has got it all????
I don’t understand how a high domestic savings rate makes a high public sector debt sustainable. Surely 195% GDP public debt is a massive burden on the Japanese government via interest payments? UK public debt is about 45% GDP whilst we have a relatively low savings rate, how are these facts related? How are domestic savings linked to public debt?