Government Debt
Government Debt by country
Commentary
Notable countries
Libya has the lowest government debt in the dataset at 0% of GDP, followed by Brunei at 1.6% and Kuwait at 2.9%, with several small island states also appearing among the lowest values. At the other end, Sudan stands out with the highest debt burden at 262.6% of GDP, ahead of Japan at 214.5% and Singapore at 167%. A notable surprise is that the United States is among the 10 highest at 123%, while Italy and Greece also remain near the bottom of the ranking.
Regional trends
Oceania has by far the lowest regional average at 36.31% of GDP, well below the global mean of 60%. Europe has a relatively moderate average of 57.68%, while Asia sits close to the world average at 60.06% despite containing several of both the lowest- and highest-debt countries. North America has the highest continental average at 68.67%, with Africa (63.89%) and South America (62.85%) also above the global mean.
Data source
The data come from the IMF World Economic Outlook 2024 and measure government debt as a share of GDP. Coverage includes 188 countries. Values are expressed in percent of GDP, so comparisons reflect debt burdens relative to economic size rather than absolute debt levels.
Interpretation
Because lower is better, high values indicate a heavier government debt burden relative to the size of the economy, while low values suggest more limited public indebtedness. The wide spread in the rankings and a standard deviation of 36.42 show that debt levels vary greatly across countries. Overall, the data suggest that debt pressures are highly uneven: some countries carry very low debt ratios, while a smaller group faces exceptionally high burdens.