TOP 10 Countries by Government Debt-to-GDP (2025)
The debt-to-GDP ratio compares government debt to the size of the economy. Higher values can reflect long-running fiscal deficits, low growth, crisis spending, or structural financing constraints — but interpretation always depends on maturity profile, domestic vs external funding, inflation dynamics, and institutions.
Chart 1. Top 10 debt-to-GDP in 2025
Bars show 2025 estimates.
- Japan: 229.6%
- Sudan: 221.5%
- Singapore: 175.6%
- Greece: 146.7%
- Bahrain: 142.5%
- Italy: 136.8%
- Maldives: 131.8%
- United States: 125.0%
- Senegal: 122.9%
- France: 116.5%
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Ranking table (filters + sorting)
Region and income are shown inside the Country cell and work through filters.
| Rank | Country (region/income) | Debt-to-GDP 2025 | Δ vs 2024 (pp) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Japan
Asia-Pacific
High income
|
229.6% | -6.5 |
| 2 |
Sudan
Africa
Low income
|
221.5% | +57.8 |
| 3 |
Singapore
Asia-Pacific
High income
|
175.6% | -3.4 |
| 4 |
Greece
Europe
High income
|
146.7% | -5.8 |
| 5 |
Bahrain
Middle East
High income
|
142.5% | +0.7 |
| 6 |
Italy
Europe
High income
|
136.8% | -1.4 |
| 7 |
Maldives
Asia-Pacific
Upper-middle income
|
131.8% | -5.0 |
| 8 |
United States
Americas
High income
|
125.0% | +1.0 |
| 9 |
Senegal
Africa
Lower-middle income
|
122.9% | +18.4 |
| 10 |
France
Europe
High income
|
116.5% | -0.5 |
Chart 2. 2023–2025 debt-to-GDP trends
Select a country to view the 2023–2025 path. If the chart can’t be rendered, the numeric mini-table is shown below.
| Year | Debt-to-GDP (%) |
|---|---|
| 2023 | — |
| 2024 | — |
| 2025 | — |
Methodology notes
This page ranks countries by general government gross debt as a percent of GDP (2025 estimate). “General government” typically aggregates central + state/local governments and social security funds (coverage can differ by country).
How to read debt-to-GDP
- It’s a ratio, not a default risk score. Two countries can share a similar ratio but have very different risk profiles depending on currency, maturity, domestic savings base, inflation, and institutional credibility.
- Trends matter. The 2023–2025 chart helps identify whether a country is deleveraging, stabilizing, or accelerating in debt.
- Cross-country comparability has limits. Statistical coverage, off-budget entities, and revisions can change levels and rankings across releases.
Update cadence: Values are aligned to the IMF World Economic Outlook (WEO) database and can change when the IMF publishes a new WEO release or revises historical series.
Sources (with what each link is for)
-
IMF DataMapper — General government gross debt (% of GDP)
Quick verification tool for individual countries and years. Useful to confirm the 2025 estimate shown in the chart/table.
-
IMF Data — World Economic Outlook (WEO) dataset hub
Official dataset landing page with access to WEO time series. Use it to download the underlying WEO database used for rankings.
-
IMF — World Economic Outlook publications archive
Release archive for WEO editions (methodological notes, revisions, and context behind the estimates).
Why can “debt-to-GDP” be extremely high for some countries?
What does “Δ vs 2024 (pp)” mean in the table?
Corrections
Debt-to-GDP 2025 — Tables & Charts (ZIP)
Includes CSV tables (Top 50 + Top 10 + 2023–2025 trends) and PNG charts used on this page.
