12 Countries With the Highest Debt to GDP Ratio (2024)

FAQs

12 Countries With the Highest Debt to GDP Ratio? ›

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

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

Japan has the highest percentage of national debt in the world at 259.43% of its annual GDP.

The United States' debt-to-GDP ratio at the close of fiscal year 2023 was 97 percent. While this figure is down slightly from 100 percent in 2020, a 74-year high, the nation's fiscal outlook is still on an unsustainable path. Debt held by the public is on track to exceed GDP in 2025 and climb to 116 percent in 2034.

GDP in Mexico is offically estimated to be $1.310 Trillion US dollars at the end of 2023. The economy of Mexico is offically reported as having a debt-to-GDP ratio of 58.7%, indicating Mexico's debt level is $755 Billion.

While Canada and the U.S. may seem as if they're on different planets when it comes to what they owe – just over $1.1-trillion for Canada compared with roughly $40-trillion (in Canadian dollars) for the U.S. – both are now spending as much on interest payments as they do on programs they each hold dear.

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).

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.

What is Canada's debt to GDP ratio? ›

Canada Government debt accounted for 67.8 % of the country's Nominal GDP in Mar 2023, compared with the ratio of 73.0 % in the previous year. Canada government debt to GDP ratio data is updated yearly, available from Mar 1962 to Mar 2023.

Japan recorded a Government Debt to GDP of 263.90 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product in 2022. Government Debt to GDP in Japan averaged 146.28 percent of GDP from 1980 until 2022, reaching an all time high of 263.90 percent of GDP in 2022 and a record low of 50.60 percent of GDP in 1980.

The estimations establish a threshold of 77 percent public debt-to-GDP ratio. If debt is above this threshold, each additional percentage point of debt costs 0.017 percentage points of annual real growth. The effect is even more pronounced in emerging markets where the threshold is 64 percent debt-to-GDP ratio.

The average GDP for fiscal year 2023 was $26.97 T, which was less than the U.S. debt of $33.17 T. This resulted in a Debt to GDP Ratio of 123 percent. Generally, a higher Debt to GDP ratio indicates a government will have greater difficulty in repaying its debt. Visualizing the debt - How much is $35 trillion dollars?

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).

With the breakdown of the economic bubble came a decrease in annual revenue. As a result, the amount of national bonds issued increased quickly. Most of the national bonds had a fixed interest rate, so the debt to GDP ratio increased as a consequence of the decrease in nominal GDP growth due to deflation.