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Visualizing Who Holds U.S. Debt Internationally

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Visualizing Who Holds U.S. Debt Internationally

Visualizing Who Holds U.S. Debt Internationally

We recommend viewing the full-size version of today’s infographic by clicking here.

Everyone knows that the U.S. Federal Government has roughly $20 trillion of debt. A question we often get, however, is who exactly owns all these treasuries? And if it’s held abroad by countries like China, what portion do they hold?

Today’s infographic comes from TitleMax, and it looks at who owns U.S. debt internationally, as well as the debt from other countries that is held by the U.S.

Who Holds U.S. Debt?

Federal government debt in the United States can be broadly placed in two categories: “Debt held by the public” and “Intragovernmental debt”. The former category includes securities held by individual investors, corporations, local and state governments, the Federal Reserve, and foreign governments.

Meanwhile, intragovernmental debt includes securities held in accounts administered by other federal authorities. This category, for example, would include treasuries owed to the Social Security Trust Fund.

Here’s the tallies of these two categories as of December 2016:

Federal U.S. Debt (Billions)
Debt held by the public$14,202.1
Intragovernmental debt$5,395.7
Total debt$19,597.8

Debt Held By the Public

“Debt held by the public” is the most interesting of these, and it can be further broken down:

EntityU.S. Debt Held (Billions)
Foreign/International$6,154.9
Federal Reserve*$2,490.6
Mutual Funds$1,524.8
State and Local Gov'ts (incl. pensions)$899.4
Banks$620.3
Private pension funds$549.1
Insurance Companies$344.8
U.S. Savings Bonds$165.8
Other$1,449.1

*Note: Data for Fed is for marketable securities only. All data in this table from September 2016.

About 43% of all debt held by the public is actually owned by foreign governments, corporations, and individuals.

U.S. Debt Held Internationally

Here’s how that breaks down by country:

CountryU.S. Debt Held (Billions)
Japan$1,090.8
China$1,058.4
Ireland$288.2
Cayman Islands$263.5
Brazil$259.2
Switzerland$229.9
Luxembourg$223.4
United Kingdom$217.1
Hong Kong$191.4
Taiwan$189.3
India$118.2
Saudi Arabia$102.8
Others$1,771.7

Note: This data is from December 2016

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Mapped: Europe’s GDP Per Capita, by Country

Which European economies are richest on a GDP per capita basis? This map shows the results for 44 countries across the continent.

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A cropped map of GDP per capita levels for 44 European countries.

Mapped: Europe’s GDP Per Capita, by Country (2024)

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Europe is home to some of the largest and most sophisticated economies in the world. But how do countries in the region compare with each other on a per capita productivity basis?

In this map, we show Europe’s GDP per capita levels across 44 nations in current U.S. dollars. Data for this visualization and article is sourced from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) via their DataMapper tool, updated April 2024.

Europe’s Richest and Poorest Nations, By GDP Per Capita

Luxembourg, Ireland, and Switzerland, lead the list of Europe’s richest nations by GDP per capita, all above $100,000.

RankCountryGDP Per Capita (2024)
1🇱🇺 Luxembourg$131,380
2🇮🇪 Ireland$106,060
3🇨🇭 Switzerland$105,670
4🇳🇴 Norway$94,660
5🇮🇸 Iceland$84,590
6🇩🇰 Denmark$68,900
7🇳🇱 Netherlands$63,750
8🇸🇲 San Marino$59,410
9🇦🇹 Austria$59,230
10🇸🇪 Sweden$58,530
11🇧🇪 Belgium$55,540
12🇫🇮 Finland$55,130
13🇩🇪 Germany$54,290
14🇬🇧 UK$51,070
15🇫🇷 France$47,360
16🇦🇩 Andorra$44,900
17🇲🇹 Malta$41,740
18🇮🇹 Italy$39,580
19🇨🇾 Cyprus$37,150
20🇪🇸 Spain$34,050
21🇸🇮 Slovenia$34,030
22🇪🇪 Estonia$31,850
23🇨🇿 Czech Republic$29,800
24🇵🇹 Portugal$28,970
25🇱🇹 Lithuania$28,410
26🇸🇰 Slovakia$25,930
27🇱🇻 Latvia$24,190
28🇬🇷 Greece$23,970
29🇭🇺 Hungary$23,320
30🇵🇱 Poland$23,010
31🇭🇷 Croatia$22,970
32🇷🇴 Romania$19,530
33🇧🇬 Bulgaria$16,940
34🇷🇺 Russia$14,390
35🇹🇷 Türkiye$12,760
36🇲🇪 Montenegro$12,650
37🇷🇸 Serbia$12,380
38🇦🇱 Albania$8,920
39🇧🇦 Bosnia & Herzegovina$8,420
40🇲🇰 North Macedonia$7,690
41🇧🇾 Belarus$7,560
42🇲🇩 Moldova$7,490
43🇽🇰 Kosovo$6,390
44🇺🇦 Ukraine$5,660
N/A🇪🇺 EU Average$44,200

Note: Figures are rounded.

Three Nordic countries (Norway, Iceland, Denmark) also place highly, between $70,000-90,000. Other Nordic peers, Sweden and Finland rank just outside the top 10, between $55,000-60,000.

Meanwhile, Europe’s biggest economies in absolute terms, Germany, UK, and France, rank closer to the middle of the top 20, with GDP per capitas around $50,000.

Finally, at the end of the scale, Eastern Europe as a whole tends to have much lower per capita GDPs. In that group, Ukraine ranks last, at $5,660.

A Closer Look at Ukraine

For a broader comparison, Ukraine’s per capita GDP is similar to Iran ($5,310), El Salvador ($5,540), and Guatemala ($5,680).

According to experts, Ukraine’s economy has historically underperformed to expectations. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the economy contracted for five straight years. Its transition to a Western, liberalized economic structure was overshadowed by widespread corruption, a limited taxpool, and few revenue sources.

Politically, its transformation from authoritarian regime to civil democracy has proved difficult, especially when it comes to institution building.

Finally, after the 2022 invasion of the country, Ukraine’s GDP contracted by 30% in a single year—the largest loss since independence. Large scale emigration—to the tune of six million refugees—is also playing a role.

Despite these challenges, the country’s economic growth has somewhat stabilized while fighting continues.

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