Two Debts, One Number
Treasury · Debt to the PennyThe headline number is really two debts. Debt held by the public is money the government borrowed from investors — people, funds, banks, foreign governments, the Federal Reserve. Intragovernmental holdings are IOUs one part of the government wrote to another, mostly to the Social Security trust funds.
Who Actually Holds It
Treasury MSPD · Fed Z.1 · TIC · NY Fed SOMAEvery rectangle below is a creditor of the United States, sized by how much of the debt it holds. Hover any cell for the exact figure and its as-of date.
The surprise in this picture: America mostly owes America. Roughly three-quarters of the gross debt is held inside the United States, and about 31% of it is held by arms of the government itself — federal trust funds (—) plus the Federal Reserve (— in Treasurys).
The single largest creditor of the United States is not a foreign power. It's the Social Security Old-Age & Survivors trust fund, holding about $2.34 trillion in special-issue Treasurys on behalf of future retirees. As those funds draw down, that internal IOU converts into real market borrowing.
Sources: Treasury Debt to the Penny (split); SSA 2026 Trustees (OASI reserves, end-2025); NY Fed SOMA (Fed holdings); CRS RS22331: "Intragovernmental debt is both an asset and a liability to the federal government."
of the debt is owed to the U.S. government itself — trust funds plus the Federal Reserve.
The Foreign Ledger
Treasury TIC · Major Foreign HoldersForeign investors hold — in Treasurys — about of the publicly-held debt. That share peaked near 49% in 2011 and has fallen ever since, because the debt grew faster than foreigners bought it.
The "China owns America" story is a decade out of date. China's holdings peaked around $1.32 trillion in late 2013. Today it holds — — third place, behind Japan and the United Kingdom, and roughly of the total debt. In 2025 its holdings hit their lowest level since the financial crisis era.
One honest caveat: this data records where securities are custodied, not who owns them. Belgium's and Luxembourg's outsized figures are largely custody hubs (Euroclear), and CFR's Brad Setser estimates China's true exposure at $1.8–1.9 trillion once you adjust for it. Even at that number, China holds under 5% of the debt.
The US paid foreign holders $282.4 billion in interest in 2025 — the real cost of the foreign-held slice.
Sources: Treasury TIC SLT Table 5 (May 2026); CRS RS22331 (2026-04-22), incl. custody footnote & foreign interest; CFR/Setser "Finding China in the U.S. TIC Data"; CNBC 2026-05-19 (18-year-low China holdings).
Top 15 foreign holders
236 Years of Borrowing
Treasury · Debt Outstanding 1790→The debt is older than the Constitution's first decade — Alexander Hamilton made the states' war debts federal in 1790. It has been paid to zero exactly once, in 1835. Toggle to see it as a share of the economy, the measure that matters most.
The one time the debt hit zero — January 1835, under Andrew Jackson — the celebration was short. The Panic of 1837 arrived two years later, and the debt never touched zero again.
The instructive stretch is 1946 to 1974: gross debt fell from about 119% of GDP to the low 20s. IMF research says that didn't happen through growth alone — it took primary surpluses, surprise inflation, and capped interest rates ("financial repression"). Today's gross ratio is back near 123%, above the WWII peak, without a world war to show for it. The last budget surpluses were 1998–2001.
Sources: Treasury Historical Debt Outstanding (1790→); FRED GFDEGDQ188S; IMF WP 2024/005 (postwar decline decomposition); NPR/HISTORY (1835 payoff and Panic of 1837).
The Accelerando
Trillion-dollar crossingsIt took 192 years to borrow the first trillion dollars. Watch the spacing of the dots — each one is another trillion, plotted on real time.
The Cost of Carrying It
Treasury · Interest Expense & Average RatesFY2025 was the crossover year: net interest (~$970B) passed the entire defense budget (~$917B), making interest the third-largest federal expense. Gross interest on all debt ran —.
About $1 of every $5 the government collects in revenue now goes to interest — past the previous record set in 1991. The average rate on the debt roughly doubled from its 1.6% low in late 2021 to — today, and because roughly a third of marketable debt matures within 12 months, rate changes pass through fast.
Sources: CRFB & Taxpayers for Common Sense (FY2025 net interest vs defense); Econofact interest-burden explainer (revenue share, maturity profile); Treasury Interest Expense & Average Rates datasets (gross interest, current rate).
What interest now outranks
Where It's Headed
Congressional Budget OfficeCBO's March 2025 long-term outlook has debt held by the public at 100% of GDP in 2025, breaking the all-time record by 2029 (107%), reaching 118% by 2035 and 156% by 2055 — or around 175% if expiring policies get extended, as they usually do.
The market's referees have already voted. S&P pulled its AAA in 2011, Fitch in 2023, and Moody's — which had rated the US top-tier since 1917 — followed in May 2025. For the first time in modern history, no major agency rates US debt at its highest grade.
And a closing curiosity: Treasury runs a real program that accepts donations to pay down the debt. It has collected about $67 million since 1996. At the current pace of borrowing, that covers roughly 20 seconds.
Sources: CBO Long-Term Budget Outlook 2025–2055 (Mar 2025) + CRFB analysis; S&P/Fitch/Moody's actions (2011-08-05, 2023-08-01, 2025-05-16); Treasury Gift Contributions dataset.