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In 2025, the public debt in the United States amounted to around ** U.S. dollars per capita. This reflected an annual growth of about *** percent from the previous year, when the national debt amounted to about ** U.S. dollars per person. The total debt accrued by the government is nearing ** trillion U.S. dollars.

America’s debt burden keeps rising

America’s national debt has risen sharply after the economic shocks of recent decades. Federal debt is what the government owes to creditors holding Treasury securities. There’s no academic consensus on what counts as a sustainable debt-to-GDP ratio. Even so, the U.S. has one of the highest such ratios in the world.

Fiscal discipline meets political reality

America’s borrowing is shaped as much by politics as by economics. The debt ceiling is a legal cap on how much the U.S. government can borrow. It was meant to encourage fiscal discipline, though every recent president has overseen an increase in the debt. As borrowing has grown, the ceiling has been hit time and again, forcing Congress to act. Each episode brings the risk of brinkmanship that can unsettle markets.