Public Debt for Every American (2024)

FAQs

Public Debt for Every American? ›

Out-of-control spending in Washington is burdening each American with large and growing levels of public debt. A child born in 2023 will have a $82,590 share of publicly held federal debt upon becoming an adult.

The $34 trillion gross federal debt equals debt held by the public plus debt held by federal trust funds and other government accounts. In very basic terms, this can be thought of as debt that the government owes to others plus debt that it owes to itself. Learn more about different ways to measure our national debt.

Basic Info. US Public Debt Per Capita is at a current level of 101.17K, up from 98.83K last month and up from 93.98K one year ago. This is a change of 2.38% from last month and 7.66% from one year ago.

As of December 2023, total federal debt was $33.1 trillion; $26.5 trillion held by the public and $12.1 trillion in intragovernmental debt.

Even though household net worth is on the rise in America (at $156 trillion at the end of 2023)—so is debt. The total personal debt in the U.S. is at an all-time high of $17.5 trillion. The average American debt (per U.S. adult) is $66,772, and 77% of American households have at least some type of debt.

Public debt is held by the public: individual investors, institutions, foreign governments. After intragovernmental holdings, the next largest category is national debt held by foreign governments. Of those, Japan has the most, followed by China.

What is the national debt? The national debt ($34.61 T) is the total amount of outstanding borrowing by the U.S. Federal Government accumulated over the nation's history. Updated daily from the Debt to the Penny dataset.

Who owns this debt? The public owes 74 percent of the current federal debt. Intragovernmental debt accounts for 26 percent or $5.9 trillion. The public includes foreign investors and foreign governments.

While government debt has been dominating the news, there is far more private debt than public debt in the U.S. economy–and it represents the greater economic challenge. As of year-end 2022, public debt totaled 123% of GDP, while private sector debt totaled 165%.

Which country has the highest debt? ›