Who Owns the US Debt?
The national debt is owed to four kinds of holders: federal government accounts such as the Social Security trust funds, the Federal Reserve, foreign investors and governments, and everyone else — households, banks, funds and state and local governments. This page splits the latest debt figures by holder, from official Treasury and FRED data, and explains what each group is.
Latest figures
The national debt by holder
Measured at the end of Q1 2026 (Mar 31, 2026), the $39.1T of gross federal debt was held as shown below. Intragovernmental and public totals come from Treasury, Federal Reserve and foreign holdings from FRED, and "all other" is what remains of debt held by the public after subtracting those two.
| Holder | Amount | Share of total debt |
|---|---|---|
| Federal trust funds and other government accounts | $7.63T | 19.5% |
| Federal Reserve | $4.38T | 11.2% |
| Foreign and international investors | $9.36T | 23.9% |
| All other holders (calculated) | $17.70T | 45.3% |
| Memo: debt held by the public (all but the first row) | $31.43T | 80.5% |
| Total gross federal debt | $39.07T | 100% |
Sources: Treasury Debt to the Penny (Mar 31, 2026), FRED TREAST (Mar 25, 2026) and FDHBFIN. The residual combines U.S. households, banks, mutual funds, pension funds, insurers and state and local governments, and it absorbs any timing and definitional differences between the sources, so treat it as an estimate.
Debt held by the public vs intragovernmental debt
- Held by the public
- Intragovernmental
Intragovernmental holdings are Treasury securities held by other parts of the federal government. When the Social Security, Medicare, military and civil-service retirement trust funds take in more than they pay out, the surplus is invested in special-issue Treasury securities, which counts as debt on the Treasury's books and as an asset of the trust fund. Intragovernmental debt rises with trust-fund surpluses and falls as the funds draw down.
Debt held by the public is everything else: Treasury bills, notes, bonds, TIPS and savings bonds owned outside the federal government's own accounts. It is what the Treasury has actually borrowed in the market and is the part that drives interest costs. The Federal Reserve's holdings are counted here, which is why the next two sections look at the Fed and at foreign investors separately.
Treasury securities held by the Federal Reserve
The Federal Reserve buys and sells Treasury securities as a tool of monetary policy. It added to its holdings sharply after the 2008 financial crisis and again in 2020, in the programs commonly called quantitative easing, and began letting its portfolio shrink in 2022 in what is known as quantitative tightening. Interest the Fed earns on these securities is, after its operating expenses, sent back to the Treasury. Source: FRED series TREAST, updated weekly.
Foreign holders of US debt
Foreign and international investors, which include governments, central banks and private investors, hold a share of the debt held by the public. Source: FRED series FDHBFIN, quarterly, end of period.
Largest foreign holders by country, Aug 2026
| Country or territory | Holdings, $ billions | Share of foreign total | Change since Aug 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japan | 1,068.3 | 11.4% | -115.6 |
| United Kingdom | 1,009.5 | 10.8% | +108.2 |
| China, Mainland | 590.7 | 6.3% | -109 |
| Belgium | 490.5 | 5.3% | +39.4 |
| Canada | 464.6 | 5.0% | +20.6 |
| Cayman Islands | 463 | 5.0% | +52.5 |
| Luxembourg | 448.2 | 4.8% | +37.4 |
| France | 363.4 | 3.9% | -25.7 |
| Ireland | 352.1 | 3.8% | +12.1 |
| Taiwan | 298.4 | 3.2% | -15 |
| All foreign holders | 9,331.7 | 100% |
Source: U.S. Treasury, Treasury International Capital (TIC) system, Table 5, Major Foreign Holders of Treasury Securities, monthly. Foreign official holders (governments and central banks) account for 40% of the total. Treasury notes that the data are collected mainly from U.S.-based custodians and broker-dealers, so securities kept in overseas custody accounts may not be attributed to their actual owners. Holdings listed under financial centers such as Belgium, Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands can therefore belong to investors elsewhere. Open the Treasury table.
Go deeper
National Debt Clock
The total debt in dollars, ticking live, with the public and intragovernmental split.
Federal Debt Dashboard
Daily Treasury debt data and deficit trends with CSV export.
Interest on the Debt
What the government pays holders of its debt each year.
Debt to GDP
The debt measured against the size of the economy.
Frequently asked questions
Who owns the US national debt?
Four broad groups. Federal government accounts, mainly the Social Security, Medicare and federal retirement trust funds, hold the intragovernmental part of the debt. The rest is debt held by the public, which is owned by the Federal Reserve, by foreign investors and governments, and by everyone else in the United States: households, banks, mutual funds, pension funds, insurers and state and local governments. The tables on this page break the latest figures out, with the date each one is measured.
How much of the national debt does the government owe to itself?
Roughly one-fifth to one-quarter of gross federal debt is intragovernmental: Treasury securities held by federal trust funds and other government accounts. It is real debt in the sense that it is a legal obligation of the Treasury, but it is owed from one part of the government to another, which is why economists often prefer debt held by the public as the measure of borrowing from outside investors. The exact current split is shown at the top of this page from the Treasury's daily Debt to the Penny data.
Does China own most of the US debt?
No. Foreign investors as a group hold a minority of the debt, and China is one of several large foreign holders alongside Japan and the United Kingdom, with its holdings typically a low single-digit percentage of total debt outstanding. The table of major foreign holders on this page shows the latest country-by-country figures from Treasury's TIC system. Holdings are recorded by where the securities are kept in custody, so some of the largest listed holders, such as financial centers, include investments owned by people in other countries.
How much of the debt does the Federal Reserve hold?
The Fed holds Treasury securities as part of its monetary policy portfolio, and that total is published weekly (FRED series TREAST). The Fed expanded its holdings sharply after the 2008 financial crisis and again in 2020, and began shrinking them in 2022. Interest the Fed earns on its Treasuries is, after its expenses, remitted to the Treasury, so Fed-held debt is treated differently from debt held by private investors, although it is still counted as debt held by the public.
Is it a problem that foreigners own US debt?
Economists disagree. Foreign demand for Treasuries lowers borrowing costs and reflects the dollar's role in global finance, and the large majority of the debt is held domestically or by the Fed. Others note that interest paid to foreign holders is a transfer abroad, and that a sudden drop in foreign demand could push up yields. Neither view is settled, which is why this page reports the holdings and leaves the judgment to the reader.
What is the difference between gross debt and debt held by the public?
Gross federal debt, the headline national debt figure, is debt held by the public plus intragovernmental holdings. Debt held by the public counts only Treasury securities owned outside the federal government's own accounts, including by the Federal Reserve. It is the measure most budget analysts use for sustainability and for interest costs.
How often is this ownership data updated?
The split between public and intragovernmental debt updates every business day from the Treasury's Debt to the Penny dataset. Federal Reserve holdings update weekly on FRED. Foreign holdings by country come monthly from Treasury's TIC system with a lag of roughly two months, and the quarterly FRED series for foreign holdings follows the same data. Because the sources are measured on different dates, the ownership breakdown on this page is aligned to the most recent quarter-end that all of them cover.
How we source and refresh this data: Methodology & data sources