The Economist has a fascinating webpage that allows you to look at all the world’s nations and compare them based on various measures of government debt (and for various years).
The most economically relevant measure is public debt as a share of GDP, and you can see that the United States is not in great shape, though many nations have more accumulated red ink (especially Japan, where debt if much higher than it is in Greece). As faithful readers of this blog already understand, the real issue is the size of government, but this site is a good indicator of nations that finance their spending in a risky fashion.
By the way, keep in mind that these figures do not include unfunded liabilities. For those who worry about debt, those are the truly shocking numbers (at least for the United States and other nations with government-run pension and health schemes).
Wow! The US has $8.5 trillion in public debt. Japan has $10.6 trillion.
From The Economist site, can anyone shed light on what ‘Total Annual Debt Change’ means?
Stephen: “Total Annual Debt Change” appears to be the percentage change in debt from the previous year.
Thanks for the clarification!
I must admit, I was stunned by the Canadian numbers that The Economist debt map provided. My recent readings have been using pre-fiscal crisis numbers so, while aware of the increase of debt due to government stimulus, I was hardly prepared for the reality of the figures.
I did a follow-up with one of my favourite analysts North-of-the-border, Neil Reynolds, and he provided this staggering assessment of Canada’s overall public debt burden.
So much for the gains hard-won by the vaunted Canadian economic miracle of the mid-90s.
[...] not necessarily a good rule of thumb. This data from the Economist Intelligence Unit (which can be viewed with a very user-friendly map) shows that Japan’s debt is nearly 200 percent of GDP, yet Japanese debt is considered very [...]
[...] rule of thumb. This chart, based on 2010 data from the Economist Intelligence Unit (which can be viewed with a very user-friendly map), shows that Japan’s debt is nearly 200 percent of GDP, yet Japanese debt is considered very [...]
[...] rule of thumb. This chart, based on 2010 data from the Economist Intelligence Unit (which can be viewed with a very user-friendly map), shows that Japan’s debt is nearly 200 percent of GDP, yet Japanese debt is considered very [...]
[...] rule of thumb. This chart, based on 2010 data from the Economist Intelligence Unit (which can be viewed with a very user-friendly map), shows that Japan’s debt is nearly 200 percent of GDP, yet Japanese debt is considered very [...]
[...] rule of thumb. This chart, based on 2010 data from the Economist Intelligence Unit (which can be viewed with a very user-friendly map), shows that Japan’s debt is nearly 200 percent of GDP, yet Japanese debt is considered very [...]