The Debt as a Percentage of Gross Domestic Product
How does the United States debt compare to that of other countries? Below is a table with public debt data from selected countries around the world. Note that the public debt is shown. This is different from the overall debt. The public debt only includes debt to the public (households and businesses) and excludes intergovernmental debt. If governmental debt were included, the numbers for most countries would increase by approximately one-third.
The table shows that in 2016 (latest year reported by many countries) the public debt as a percentage of nominal GDP in the United States is close to the average public debt of other industrialized countries. China, South Korea, Russia, and Algeria have lower debts as a percentage of their economy (nominal GDP). Greece, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Egypt, France, and Canada 
all have higher-percentage debts. Germany, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom have percentage debts that are close to that of the United States. In a complete list of 150 countries, the United States ranks as the 43rd highest public debt holder (42 countries have more public debt and 107 have less public debt as a percentage of their nominal GDP). In the table below you can see that Japan had the highest public debt percentage with 235%. Greece and Italy take the silver and bronze respectively with 182% and 133%.
| Country | Fiscal Year 2005 Public Debt as a Percentage of nominal GDP * (rounded to the nearest whole number) |
Fiscal Year 2007 Public Debt as a Percentage of nominal GDP * (rounded to the nearest whole number) |
Fiscal Year 2008 Public Debt as a Percentage of nominal GDP * (rounded to the nearest whole number) | Fiscal Year 2011 Public Debt as a Percentage of nominal GDP * (rounded to the nearest whole number) | Fiscal Year 2012 Public Debt as a Percentage of nominal GDP * (rounded to the nearest whole number) | Fiscal Year 2014 Public Debt as a Percentage of nominal GDP * (rounded to the nearest whole number)** | Fiscal Year 2016 Public Debt as a Percentage of nominal GDP * (rounded to the nearest whole number)** |
| United States | 36 | 37 | 70 | 66 | 70 | 71 | 79 |
| Algeria | 30 | 10 | 14 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 17 |
| Brazil | 52 | 44 | 41 | 54 | 59 | 59 | 72 |
| Canada | 70 | 64 | 62 | 84 | 85 | 93 | 99 |
| China | 24 | 19 | 16 | 39 | 32 | 22 | 20 |
| Egypt | 105 | 105 | 85 | 84 | 88 | 94 | 93 |
| France | 66 | 67 | 67 | 86 | 90 | 96 | 97 |
| Germany | 67 | 65 | 63 | 80 | 81 | 75 | 69 |
| Greece | 84 | 83 | 92 | 170 | 157 | 175 | 182 |
| Hong Kong | 2 | 10 | 15 | 39 | 38 | 37 | 38 |
| India | 54 | 59 | 78 | 51 | 52 | 51 | 52 |
| Iran | 29 | 23 | 25 | 14 | 18 | 11 | 12 |
| Israel | 100 | 82 | 76 | 69 | 67 | 67 | 62 |
| Italy | 109 | 106 | 104 | 121 | 127 | 134 | 133 |
| Japan | 158 | 194 | 170 | 211 | 219 | 228 | 235 |
| Korea (South) | 20 | 33 | 33 | 36 | 35 | 37 | 46 |
| Mexico | 17 | 23 | 20 | 35 | 36 | 41 | 50 |
| Netherlands | 53 | 48 | 43 | 65 | 71 | 69 | 57 |
| Pakistan | 54 | 54 | 50 | 49 | 52 | 64 | 59 |
| Russia | 13 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 13 | 14 |
| Saudi Arabia | 44 | 23 | 14 | 11 | 12 | 2 | 31 |
| Singapore | 103 | 101 | 114 | 106 | 111 | 107 | 111 |
| South Africa | 36 | 28 | 30 | 40 | 42 | 47 | 43 |
| Sweden | 50 | 42 | 37 | 39 | 38 | 40 | 41 |
| Taiwan | 34 | 31 | 31 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 33 |
| Turkey | 68 | 58 | 37 | 40 | 38 | 37 | 33 |
| United Kingdom | 41 | 43 | 47 | 84 | 89 | 87 | 92 |
| Venezuela | 34 | 27 | 17 | 25 | 27 | 51 | 37 |
* Public debt includes only debt held by the public, the Federal Reserve and foreign, state and local governments. Any debt that is held by federal government entities (Social Security and Medicare trust funds) is excluded. If all forms of debt were included, the percentage for most countries would increase by approximately one-third.
** Some 2016 data are estimates as not all countries have released final statistics for 2016 or beyond.
Source: CIA World Fact Book. For a direct link, please visit
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2186.html