In an age and time where everyone has debt, whether big or small, even the countries take out debts and the idea of countries having a debt to someone feels absolutely weird to some, but every country in the world needs to take out debt to support their projects and to create economic growth in ways that they couldn’t otherwise.
However, sometimes these debts go too high, and it creates problems; since you are not an individual, you can use a debt relief company to fix this issue; you generally need to pay those debts, which means the citizens need to pay them.
The US has one of the biggest debts in the world as a country. And according to Trading economics, from 1940 till 2022, the U.S. government debt to GDP averaged at 65.20%, reaching an all time high of 129.00%.
To learn more such details about how much debt the US has keep reading this article.
How Much Debt the USA Has?
It is important to know that the debt of the US increases by thousands of dollars every single second, and every kind of information you will find on the internet will probably be outdated.
However, in February 2022, the United States national debt surpassed $30 trillion1, the highest in the history of the country.
This amount equals 130% of the total American economic output, which is an extraordinarily high number that puts about $242,000 per taxpayer in the United States.
This number also makes the United States one of the most heavily indebted nations in the world.
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Who Are The Debtors of a Country?
The very important question that everyone seems to be asking about the national debts, in general, is who are the debtors of a country?
Who does the United States need to pay that money back? There are many answers to this question.
The majority of this needs to be paid back to the federal government.
As the Treasury Department states, about $6.5 trillion of the entire $30 trillion belongs to intragovernmental holdings.
The public holds the other part of the debt. Public means not only individual investors and citizens but also means the debts that Federal Reserve, investment funds, and foreign governments hold.
It is safe to say that of $30 trillion, at least $25 trillion of this debt belongs to the federal government.
The United States needs to pay back this money to its own institutions back, and while doing this, the US needs to pay also interest on top of these debts, which puts even more weight on top of taxpayers’ shoulders.
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The Verdict
To conclude, the US has a total debt of $30 trillion as of February 2022, and this number keeps increasing, which puts a lot of burden on the taxpayers.
Of that $30 trillion, approximately $25 trillion is held by federal governmental institutions like Federal Reserve, Social Security Administration, Treasury securities, and so many other funds that hold these debts to provide for the country and for the citizens.
However, every moment that the US has these debts, they are also paying interest on top of these debts, increasing the cost.
This means that the country can’t just pay the debt; they also need to pay the interest.
Shefali Jain is a Content Writer & Editor at USWorkforce.org
After completing her graduation in hospitality, Shefali decided to follow her passion and started writing. Shefali has been writing for two years now and contributes to our website as a skilled editor and content writer with strong research skills. Writing product and service reviews, biographies, and book reviews are some of her key areas, among many others in which she specializes. In her time at the organization, she has written and edited content on a range of topics, including employment law, human resources, and business management.
ARTICLE SOURCES
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- https://datalab.usaspending.gov/americas-finance-guide/debt/trends/[↩]
- https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/national-debt/#:~:text=What%20is%20the%20national%20debt,accumulated%20over%20the%20nation’s%20history.&text=Updated%20daily%20from%20the%20Debt%20to%20the%20Penny%20dataset.[↩]