US debt: how big is it and who owns it? (2024)

FAQs

US debt: how big is it and who owns it? ›

About half of the $30 trillion in Federal debt is held in trust for retirement by Americans. This includes excessive money collected by the Social Security administration, which is used to buy government securities rather than holding it in cash. Foreign and international investors hold over $7 trillion.

The major international owners of US debt include Japan ($1.1T), China, UK, Belgium, Switzerland, Cayman Islands and smaller amounts from the rest of the world. After the recent weak treasury auction, US government officials warned that they are seeing waning demand from international buyers.

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.

Nearly half of all US foreign-owned debt comes from five countries. All values are adjusted to 2023 dollars. As of January 2023, the five countries owning the most US debt are Japan ($1.1 trillion), China ($859 billion), the United Kingdom ($668 billion), Belgium ($331 billion), and Luxembourg ($318 billion).

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. These two groups account for 30 percent of the debt.

The United States pays interest on approximately $850 billion in debt held by the People's Republic of China. China, however, is currently in default on its sovereign debt held by American bondholders.

Eliminating the U.S. government's debt is a Herculean task that could take decades. In addition to obvious steps, such as hiking taxes and slashing spending, the government could take a number of other approaches, some of them unorthodox and even controversial.

At the top is Japan, whose national debt has remained above 100% of its GDP for two decades, reaching 255% in 2023.

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. Offered in a wide range of maturities.

It began rising at a fast rate in the 1980's and was accelerated through events like the Iraq Wars and the 2008 Great Recession. Most recently, the debt made another big jump thanks to the pandemic with the federal government spending significantly more than it took in to keep the country running.

How much U.S. debt does Russia own? ›

Does Russia still own U.S. Treasury bonds? How much U.S. debt has Russia owned in the past and did the overnight repo market & U.S. bond market nearly collapse in Sep. 2019 due to Russia & China selling their Treasury bonds? According to the US Treasury, Russian ownership of US Treasuries was $2.1 Billion in Nov 2022.

The financial position of the United States includes assets of at least $269 trillion (1576% of GDP) and debts of $145.8 trillion (852% of GDP) to produce a net worth of at least $123.8 trillion (723% of GDP).

Most include a combination of deep spending cuts and tax increases to bend the debt curve. Cutting spending. Most comprehensive proposals to rein in the debt include major cuts to spending on entitlement programs and defense.

The national debt is the total amount of money the U.S. owes its creditors, which includes “the public” (individual investors, businesses, commercial banks, pension funds, mutual funds, state and local governments, the Federal Reserve System and foreign governments) as well as other parts of the federal government, ...

Notably, the public debt actually shrank to zero by January 1835, under President Andrew Jackson.

Does Russia still own U.S. Treasury bonds? How much U.S. debt has Russia owned in the past and did the overnight repo market & U.S. bond market nearly collapse in Sep. 2019 due to Russia & China selling their Treasury bonds? According to the US Treasury, Russian ownership of US Treasuries was $2.1 Billion in Nov 2022.

Around 70% of Japanese government bonds are purchased by the Bank of Japan, and much of the remainder is purchased by Japanese banks and trust funds, which largely insulates the prices and yields of such bonds from the effects of the global bond market and reduces their sensitivity to credit rating changes.