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.
Chart 1 of 2 · Federal budget
Who owns the US national debt?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
At the end of August 2026 the federal debt was $40.2 trillion. Other U.S. investors (banks, mutual funds, pension funds, state and local governments and people) held $18.5 trillion, 46%. Foreign investors held $9.33 trillion (23%), federal trust funds such as Social Security's held $7.76 trillion (19%), and the Federal Reserve $4.55 trillion (11%). Foreign holdings are Treasury's TIC estimate, partly at market value, and the U.S. share is what's left after the others, so the split is approximate.
Questions to discuss
- In one sentence of your own, what does this chart show?
- Find the biggest change or difference in the chart. What might explain it?
- Who collected these numbers, and how recent are they? What else would you want to know before drawing a conclusion?
Source: U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data, Debt to the Penny; U.S. Treasury, TIC Major Foreign Holders of Treasury Securities; Federal Reserve Bank of New York, SOMA Holdings (Treasury data public domain (U.S. government work). The SOMA Holdings data is subject to the Terms of Use posted at newyorkfed.org; the New York Fed is not responsible for publication.) · Data as of Aug 31, 2026
Open the chart and its numbersChart 2 of 2 · World
What share of people use the internet in each country?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
In 2024, 94.7% of people in the United States used the internet and 64.9% in India. The highest share was 100%, and the lowest 8.6%, in Burundi. 182 countries and territories had a 2024 figure. It counts people who used the internet at least once in the previous three months; places without a 2024 figure are left out.
How to read this chart
Each bar is the share of a country's people who used the internet in the previous three months. The dashed line is the whole world. The chart opens on the top and bottom of the ranking; search for a country to find its bar among the rest.
Questions to discuss
- Find the United States and one country on another continent. How far apart are their shares?
- What do the countries at the bottom of the ranking have in common? What might keep people there offline?
- The world figure is closer to the bottom than many rich countries are to the top. Why might that be?
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators: Individuals using the Internet (% of population) (CC BY 4.0 (credit the World Bank)) · Data as of Dec 31, 2024
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