Chart assignment

Charts to read and discuss

Read each chart, then answer its questions. Every chart shows its source and date; open it for a table of the numbers and the data to download.

  1. How much US debt do foreign countries own?
  2. How big is the federal debt compared with the economy?

Chart 1 of 2 · Federal budget

How much US debt do foreign countries own?

The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.

Foreign investors, governments and private buyers together, held $9.33 trillion of U.S. Treasury securities in August 2026, about 8 times the $1.25 trillion of March 2000. They reached a high of $9.49 trillion in February 2026. These are Treasury's TIC survey estimates at the end of each month; the series has breaks when annual surveys revise it and when Treasury changed its monthly report in December 2011.

Questions to discuss

  1. In one sentence of your own, what does this chart show?
  2. Find the biggest change or difference in the chart. What might explain it?
  3. Who collected these numbers, and how recent are they? What else would you want to know before drawing a conclusion?

Source: U.S. Treasury, Treasury International Capital (TIC) System, Major Foreign Holders of Treasury Securities (Public domain (U.S. government work)) · Data as of Aug 31, 2026

Open the chart and its numbers

Chart 2 of 2 · Federal budget

How big is the federal debt compared with the economy?

The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.

At the end of fiscal 2026 the federal debt was 125% of a year's GDP, everything the U.S. economy produces in a year. It fell from 96% in 1948 to a low of 32% in 1981, passed 100% in 2013 and jumped to 126% in 2020. This is total debt, including what the government owes its own trust funds, divided by GDP over the same fiscal year; it starts in 1948 because BEA's quarterly GDP starts in 1947, and recent GDP figures are revised.

How to read this chart

Each point divides the federal government's total debt by GDP, everything the U.S. economy produces in a year. At 100%, the debt equals one year of the whole economy's output. Comparing debt with the economy's size, instead of in dollars, makes years decades apart fair to compare.

Questions to discuss

  1. When was the debt smallest compared with the economy, and when was it largest?
  2. The debt can grow in dollars while this percentage falls. How is that possible?
  3. Pick a big jump on the chart. What events could make the government borrow much more in a short time?

Source: U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data, Historical Debt Outstanding; GDP from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (NIPA Table 1.1.5) (Public domain (U.S. government work)) · Data as of Sep 30, 2026

Open the chart and its numbers

Teachers: make your own chart assignment, or change this one. Free, no account needed.