Who owns the US national debt?

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.

Lee este gráfico en español

The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are in the table below.

The value axis starts at zero. Hover, tap or use the arrow keys to read exact values.

Save a simple drawing of this chart for slides, essays or posts, with its question, source, date and a link back to this page. Please keep the credit.

Download image

A tall picture for Pinterest or an Instagram story, with the question, answer, source, date and this page's address.

Save to Pinterest Download tall image
Chartly Pro: downloads and embeds without the credit. Join the waitlist

It doesn't exist yet. Tell us what you'd use it for, and we'll email you once when it's ready. Downloads and embeds with the credit stay free.

Nothing to pay. We'll email you once, when Pro is ready. See our privacy policy.

Key facts

Measure: Debt held in US dollars. Written from the data below.

  • Other U.S. investors has the highest figure, $18.5T.
  • Federal Reserve has the lowest figure, $4.55T.
  • The highest is 4.1 times the lowest.

The bigger picture, in plain words: Is the national debt growing faster than the economy?

Teachers: add this chart to a class assignment, one link to post in Google Classroom, Canvas or Moodle.

Source and date

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
License
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
Published

Citation

Chartly. “Who owns the US national debt?” Chart. Data: 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, https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datasets/debt-to-the-penny/ (data as of August 31, 2026). https://chart.ly/charts/who-owns-the-us-debt (accessed November 6, 2026).

Free for your article, blog or class page: paste this code where the chart should go. It shows the interactive chart with its source and a small “Chart by Chartly” credit, and stays up to date when the data changes. Need it without the credit? Join the Chartly Pro waitlist.

The data

Download data (CSV)

The file has the numbers in this table, with the source, license and date. Please credit the source and Chartly. Developers can also get them as JSON (how).

Owner Debt held in US dollars
Other U.S. investors 18,537,119,939,200
Foreign investors 9,331,700,000,000
Federal trust funds 7,760,652,224,459
Federal Reserve 4,546,168,907,975

Get new charts weekly

One email a week with the newest charts and their key numbers. No account needed.