Who owns the US national debt?

At the end of July 2026 the federal debt was $39.8 trillion. Other U.S. investors (banks, mutual funds, pension funds, state and local governments and people) held $18.3 trillion, 46%. Foreign investors held $9.2 trillion (23%), federal trust funds such as Social Security's held $7.7 trillion (19%), and the Federal Reserve $4.5 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.

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Key facts

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

  • Other U.S. investors has the highest figure, $18.3T.
  • Federal Reserve has the lowest figure, $4.52T.
  • The highest is 4 times the lowest.

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 July 31, 2026). https://chart.ly/charts/who-owns-the-us-debt (accessed October 17, 2026).

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The data

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The file has the numbers in this table, with the source, license and date. Please credit the source and Chartly.

Owner Debt held in US dollars
Other U.S. investors 18,278,109,342,895
Foreign investors 9,248,100,000,000
Federal trust funds 7,725,753,468,003
Federal Reserve 4,519,654,351,569

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