U.S. National Debt Clock

An Overview of the United States National Debt

The Current Outstanding Public Debt of the United States is:

$12,030,202,701,513.91

Last Updated: Friday, November 20th, 2009 (updated daily)


Every man, woman and child in the United States currently owes $39,596 for their share of the U.S. public debt






Public Debt: $7,632,273,641,916.39
Intragovernmental Holdings: $4,397,929,059,597.52

Total U.S. National Debt: $12,030,202,701,513.91


Question: Who owns the public debt?

Answer: Mutual funds, pension funds, foreign governments, foreign investors, American investors, etc.

Which Foreign governments own the most U.S. debt?

Answer: Here is the Top 10 (as of January 2009)

1. China, $739 billion dollars
2. Japan, $634.8 billion dollars
3. Oil Exporters*, $186.3 billion dollars
4. Caribbean Banking Centers**, $176.6 billion dollars
5. Brazil, $133.5 billion dollars
6. United Kingdom, $124.2 billion dollars
7. Russia, $119.6 billion dollars
8. Luxembourg, $87.2 billion dollars
9. Taiwan, $73.3 billion dollars
10. Hong Kong, $71.7 billion dollars

*Includes oil exporting countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran

**includes countries such as Bermuda and the Cayman Islands

Of the $3.072 trillion dollars of US debt that is owned by foreign governments, China and Japan own nearly half, as evidenced by this chart:




Growth of US Debt Over Past 50 Years

Current: $12,030,202,701,513.91
2004: $7,379,052,696,330.32
1999: $5,656,270,901,615.43
1994: $4,692,749,910,013.32
1989: $2,857,430,960,187.32
1984: $1,572,266,000,000.00
1979: $826,519,000,000.00
1974: $475,059,815,731.55
1969: $353,720,253,841.41
1964: $311,712,899,257.30
1959: $284,705,907,078.22