Cited Charts
Who Actually Owns the $40 Trillion?
Episode 01 · 10:36 · published 24 November 2026 · watch
The figures used
| What | Value |
|---|---|
| Total public debt outstanding, 5 Nov 2026 | $40.556 tn |
| Total, 31 Dec 2025 | $38.514 tn |
| Intragovernmental holdings, 31 Dec 2025 | $7.667 tn |
| Debt held by the public, 31 Dec 2025 | $30.847 tn |
| Foreign holdings, Dec 2025 | $9.270 tn |
| Japan | $1,185.5 bn |
| United Kingdom | $863.1 bn |
| China, Mainland | $684.4 bn |
| China's peak, Dec 2013 | $1,270.1 bn |
| Interest paid, FY2026 | $1,360.4 bn |
| Interest paid, FY2016 | $432.6 bn |
| Average rate on interest-bearing debt, Oct 2026 | 3.580 % |
| Average rate, Dec 2021 (low) | 1.565 % |
All shares and ratios are computed on the 31 December 2025 total of $38.514 trillion — the last date on which every series overlaps. Mixing figures from different dates would produce ratios that are arithmetically correct and factually meaningless.
Sources
- U.S. Treasury — Debt to the Penny Total, intragovernmental and public holdings. Daily. Retrieved 8 November 2026 for 5 Nov 2026 and year-end values 2000–2026.
-
U.S. Treasury — Major Foreign Holders of Treasury Securities (TIC)
Holdings by country, December of each year 2000–2025. File
mfhhis01.txt. Retrieved 8 November 2026. - U.S. Treasury — Interest Expense on the Public Debt By fiscal year, FY2011–FY2026, plus Average Interest Rates 2001–2026. Retrieved 8 November 2026.
Data files
As used in the episode — the charts are generated from exactly these.
tic-historie.json country series 2000–2025 tic-dez2025.json holders, Dec 2025 zins-jahre.json interest by fiscal year zinssatz-jahre.json average rate 2001–2026Two things the data cannot tell you
TIC records custody, not ownership. Belgium, Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands appear high in the list because they host depositories and funds — not because those countries hold the debt. Part of China's decline may be holdings moving into such accounts rather than leaving. The data cannot separate the two.
"Not listed" is not zero. The United Kingdom does not appear in the major-holders table before 2012. That means it was below the reporting threshold, not that it held nothing.
Corrections
None yet. Errors reported in the comments are corrected here and noted with the date.
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