Government debt by instrument coverage — Debt securities and loans by country
The magnitude of government debt and debt-to-GDP ratios varies depending on which measure of debt is used. To promote international comparability, the IMF, the OECD and the World Bank have agreed on a set of standard debt measures, which are defined in the Public Sector Debt Statistics Guide for Compilers and Users...
What the numbers show
Government debt by instrument coverage — Debt securities and loans is currently reported for 32 countries. The highest value is 195.55 Percentage of GDP in Japan; the lowest is 23.55 Percentage of GDP in Switzerland.
The median across all reporting countries is 61.27 Percentage of GDP, and the mean is 70.42 Percentage of GDP.
The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 8.
Over the past decade 20 countries rose and 12 fell. The largest increase was in Estonia (up 144.6%), and the largest decrease in Ireland (down 52.1%).
Government debt by instrument coverage — Debt securities and loans: full country ranking
| # | Country | Latest | Year | 10-year change | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Japan | 195.55 Percentage of GDP | 2026 | up 1.6% | rising |
| 1 | Slovenia | 64.5 Percentage of GDP | 2026 | down 22.7% | volatile |
| 2 | Greece | 140.51 Percentage of GDP | 2026 | down 19.9% | rising |
| 2 | Poland | 61.24 Percentage of GDP | 2026 | up 19.1% | rising |
| 3 | Italy | 130.12 Percentage of GDP | 2026 | up 5.5% | rising |
| 3 | Latvia | 45.53 Percentage of GDP | 2026 | up 12.4% | rising |
| 4 | United States | 117.01 Percentage of GDP | 2026 | up 19.5% | rising |
| 4 | Netherlands | 43.64 Percentage of GDP | 2026 | down 31.0% | falling |
| 5 | France | 116.25 Percentage of GDP | 2026 | up 19.5% | rising |
| 5 | Lithuania | 42.01 Percentage of GDP | 2026 | up 9.4% | rising |
| 6 | Belgium | 108.88 Percentage of GDP | 2026 | up 0.4% | falling |
| 6 | Estonia | 25.11 Percentage of GDP | 2026 | up 144.6% | volatile |
| 7 | Spain | 101.29 Percentage of GDP | 2026 | down 1.9% | rising |
| 7 | Türkiye | 24.2 Percentage of GDP | 2026 | down 12.4% | falling |
| 8 | Canada | 95.08 Percentage of GDP | 2026 | up 29.0% | rising |
| 9 | United Kingdom | 93.69 Percentage of GDP | 2026 | up 14.2% | rising |
| 10 | Finland | 89.44 Percentage of GDP | 2026 | up 29.5% | rising |
| 11 | Austria | 82.93 Percentage of GDP | 2026 | down 1.8% | rising |
| 12 | Hungary | 76.93 Percentage of GDP | 2026 | up 3.8% | rising |
| 13 | Portugal | 74.56 Percentage of GDP | 2026 | down 36.7% | rising |
| 14 | Germany | 63.12 Percentage of GDP | 2026 | down 10.2% | flat |
| 15 | Costa Rica | 61.3 Percentage of GDP | 2026 | up 48.7% | rising |
| 16 | Colombia | 59.27 Percentage of GDP | 2026 | up 40.1% | rising |
| 17 | Australia | 53.03 Percentage of GDP | 2026 | up 50.3% | volatile |
| 18 | Mexico | 52 Percentage of GDP | 2026 | up 39.2% | rising |
| 19 | Norway | 49.07 Percentage of GDP | 2026 | up 48.5% | rising |
| 20 | Czechia | 43.74 Percentage of GDP | 2026 | up 11.4% | rising |
| 21 | Ireland | 32.72 Percentage of GDP | 2026 | down 52.1% | rising |
| 22 | Sweden | 32.14 Percentage of GDP | 2026 | down 22.8% | falling |
| 23 | Luxembourg | 28.83 Percentage of GDP | 2026 | up 43.2% | rising |
| 24 | Denmark | 26.3 Percentage of GDP | 2026 | down 37.5% | falling |
| 25 | Switzerland | 23.55 Percentage of GDP | 2026 | down 13.8% | falling |
Regions and income groups
Aggregates are excluded from the country ranking above so that a region can never outrank a country.
- Slovak Republic 62.17 Percentage of GDP
- Korea 45.57 Percentage of GDP
About this data
The magnitude of government debt and debt-to-GDP ratios varies depending on which measure of debt is used. To promote international comparability, the IMF, the OECD and the World Bank have agreed on a set of standard debt measures, which are defined in the Public Sector Debt Statistics Guide for Compilers and Users and the Government Finance Statistics Manual 2014. Government gross debt is shown in four categories: D1 to D4. D1 is the narrowest measure, comprising only two financial instruments: debt securities and loans. D4 (‘total gross debt’) is the broadest measure and includes debt securities, loans, Special Drawing Rights, currency and deposits, other accounts payable and insurance, pensions and standardised guarantees. The D1 to D3 measures are comparable between OECD countries. D4 is the preferred measure of debt in the international accounting standards (System of National Accounts or SNA) but cross-country comparability is more difficult for D4 because countries have different approaches to recording unfunded pension liabilities for government employees. For more information, please see the document: Measuring Government Debt: D1-D4