Countries with the lowest national debt 2022 | Statista (2024)

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Countries with the lowest national debt 2022 | Statista? ›

Japan has the highest percentage of national debt in the world at 259.43% of its annual GDP.

Japan has the highest percentage of national debt in the world at 259.43% of its annual GDP.

In 2022, Lebanon ranked had the highest public debt level in relation to its GDP, with an estimated debt almost three times larger than its GDP.

There is only one “debt-free” country as per the IMF database. For many countries, the unusually low national debt could be due to failing to report actual figures to the IMF.

Sweden, Norway and Denmark are among at least a dozen countries in the European Union thatprovide free tuition to public and private universities, as well as loans to cover living expenses. According to Accredited Schools Online, 22 countries around the globe offer free college. Stipulations vary, though.

Nearly half of all US foreign-owned debt comes from five countries. All values are adjusted to 2023 dollars. As of January 2023, the five countries owning the most US debt are Japan ($1.1 trillion), China ($859 billion), the United Kingdom ($668 billion), Belgium ($331 billion), and Luxembourg ($318 billion).

Around 70% of Japanese government bonds are purchased by the Bank of Japan, and much of the remainder is purchased by Japanese banks and trust funds, which largely insulates the prices and yields of such bonds from the effects of the global bond market and reduces their sensitivity to credit rating changes.

Why is US debt so high? ›

It began rising at a fast rate in the 1980's and was accelerated through events like the Iraq Wars and the 2008 Great Recession. Most recently, the debt made another big jump thanks to the pandemic with the federal government spending significantly more than it took in to keep the country running.

Why History Shows the United States Will Not Grow Out of Its Debt. The United States is approaching record levels of debt. Debt held by the public totaled 97 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) at the end of 2022 and is on track to exceed its previous all-time high, which occurred just after World II, by 2029.

No country owes the bank more than India, Indonesia and Bangladesh. There are 121 low- and middle-income countries feeding into the World Bank's (WB) debtor reporting systems, but almost half of the $407bn owed to the Washington-based multilateral lender traces back to just 10 of them.

At the top is Japan, whose national debt has remained above 100% of its GDP for two decades, reaching 255% in 2023. *For the U.S. and Canada, gross debt levels were adjusted to exclude unfunded pension liabilities of government employees' defined-benefit pension plans.

Former financial arbitrage trader Jerome Kerviel is the most indebted man on the planet, owing his former employer $6.3 billion. The amount Kerviel owes to French bank Societe Generale for fraudulent trades made in 2007 and 2008 would make Kerviel one of the 50 richest people in America if those debts were assets.

Nearly half of all US foreign-owned debt comes from five countries. All values are adjusted to 2023 dollars. As of January 2023, the five countries owning the most US debt are Japan ($1.1 trillion), China ($859 billion), the United Kingdom ($668 billion), Belgium ($331 billion), and Luxembourg ($318 billion).

Among advanced economies, debt as a percentage of GDP increased from around 75 percent to more than 80 percent. As of 2023, the United States' debt-to-GDP ratio is among the highest in the developed world, behind only Japan and Italy.

One of the main culprits is consistently overspending. When the federal government spends more than its budget, it creates a deficit. In the fiscal year of 2023, it spent about $381 billion more than it collected in revenues. To pay that deficit, the government borrows money.