Government debt

Central government debt as a share of GDP.

measured by: World Bank
originally from: International Monetary Fund, Government Finance Statistics
years covered: 1970–2024
subject: Economic

Neither end of this scale is better. It is context, not a score.

How this is measured

The stock of central government debt over GDP. Reported by far fewer countries than most series here, and central government only, so it omits state, municipal and public-corporation debt — which in federal countries is a large omission.

Highest first for 2024

31 countries and territories have a figure for 2024. This is the most recent year the series covers well; the viewer holds every year from 1970.

#	Country	Region	Debt
1	United Kingdom	Europe	130.7%
2	United States	Americas	115.8%
3	El Salvador	Americas	107.3%
4	Spain	Europe	105.6%
5	South Africa	Sub-Saharan Africa	82.8%
6	Hungary	Europe	82.0%
7	Brazil	Americas	81.9%
8	Mozambique	Sub-Saharan Africa	71.8%
9	Bahamas	Americas	71.5%
10	Colombia	Americas	71.2%
11	Uruguay	Americas	65.3%
12	Malaysia	Asia-Pacific	64.6%
13	Burkina Faso	Sub-Saharan Africa	64.2%
14	Canada	Americas	64.1%
15	Thailand	Asia-Pacific	61.9%
16	Uganda	Sub-Saharan Africa	54.4%
17	Papua New Guinea	Asia-Pacific	52.0%
18	New Zealand	Asia-Pacific	52.0%
19	Mexico	Americas	50.3%
20	Albania	Europe	50.0%
21	Armenia	Eurasia	47.9%
22	South Korea	Asia-Pacific	47.8%
23	Mongolia	Asia-Pacific	43.3%
24	Georgia	Eurasia	40.1%
25	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Europe	39.7%
26	Kyrgyzstan	Eurasia	38.7%
27	Turkey	Eurasia	26.6%
28	Solomon Islands	Asia-Pacific	26.0%
29	Switzerland	Europe	22.3%
30	Russia	Eurasia	17.9%
31	Somalia	Sub-Saharan Africa	12.7%

Data by year

Show 38 yearly JSON rankings

Follow a year link to open the complete world ranking, including country names, values, positions, source and licence.

Source and licence

World Bank — World Development Indicators

CC BY 4.0. World Bank, World Development Indicators How every source was checked

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