Globe Debt

What this shows

Globe Debt shows how much every government owes, borrows and spends, coloured on a globe you can spin. The figures come from the IMF World Economic Outlook, which covers more than 190 countries from 1980 through the latest projections.

Everything is measured against the size of each economy — as a share of GDP — because a trillion dollars of debt means something very different to the United States than to Portugal. Pick an indicator, drag through the years, or switch to change over time to see which countries moved the most. Switch the unit to dollars if you want the absolute amounts.

Data: IMF World Economic Outlook and IMF Global Debt Database. Borders: Natural Earth. Data retrieved 2026-09-08.

The indicators

General government gross debt (% of GDP)

Total debt owed by central, regional and local government plus social security funds, divided by nominal GDP. Financial assets held by government are not subtracted.

General government net debt (% of GDP)

Gross debt minus the financial assets government holds. Few countries report it, so coverage is patchy.

Fiscal balance (% of GDP)

Government revenue minus spending over one year. Positive is a surplus, negative a deficit.

Primary balance (% of GDP)

The fiscal balance excluding interest payments — what the budget looks like before the cost of existing debt.

Government revenue (% of GDP)

Total general government revenue, including taxes and social contributions.

Government spending (% of GDP)

Total general government expenditure. The gap between this and revenue is the fiscal balance.

Private debt (% of GDP)

Loans and debt securities owed by households and firms. It sits outside the government's books, but tends to land there in a crisis. Source: IMF Global Debt Database.

Household debt (% of GDP)

Loans and debt securities owed by households. Person-to-person debts, such as Korean jeonse deposits, are not counted.

Corporate debt (% of GDP)

Loans and debt securities owed by non-financial firms. State-owned enterprise debt is classified differently across countries, so compare with care.

Where countries stand

Highest government debt, 2025 (top 20)

Lowest government debt, 2025 (bottom 20)

Recent years may still be IMF estimates, and later years are projections rather than outturns. Countries also differ in what they count as government debt — some include state-owned enterprises or public pension liabilities, others do not — so treat small gaps between neighbouring countries as noise rather than signal.