Government Debt (% of GDP) by country
General government gross debt as a share of GDP (IMF WEO October 2024). High debt constrains fiscal space for transition investment and is a structural stress signal. Japan ~252%, Italy ~139%, US ~123% — the high-debt regime is now fully visible across all 25 countries (previously WB lacked coverage for 12).
Global trend
Mean stress score across all countries for which data is available, over the last 12 months.
Where the pressure is concentrated
The five most-affected and five least-affected countries on this indicator right now.
Most affected
- 1Japan252 % of GDP100
- 2Singapore173 % of GDP84
- 3Italy139 % of GDP64
- 4United States123 % of GDP55
- 5France111 % of GDP48
Least affected
- 1Turkey28.0 % of GDP0
- 2UAE28.0 % of GDP0
- 3Sweden33.0 % of GDP2
- 4Switzerland38.0 % of GDP5
- 5Norway44.0 % of GDP8
Full ranking
All 25 tracked countries, ordered from most to least affected. Click any country to see its full composite breakdown.
| # | Country | Raw value | Stress score | As of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Japan | 252 % of GDP | 100.0 | 2024-12-31 |
| 2 | Singapore | 173 % of GDP | 84.1 | 2024-12-31 |
| 3 | Italy | 139 % of GDP | 64.1 | 2024-12-31 |
| 4 | United States | 123 % of GDP | 54.7 | 2024-12-31 |
| 5 | France | 111 % of GDP | 47.6 | 2024-12-31 |
| 6 | Canada | 107 % of GDP | 45.3 | 2024-12-31 |
| 7 | Spain | 105 % of GDP | 44.1 | 2024-12-31 |
| 8 | United Kingdom | 104 % of GDP | 43.5 | 2024-12-31 |
| 9 | Argentina | 91.0 % of GDP | 35.9 | 2024-12-31 |
| 10 | Brazil | 88.0 % of GDP | 34.1 | 2024-12-31 |
| 11 | India | 83.0 % of GDP | 31.2 | 2024-12-31 |
| 12 | South Africa | 75.0 % of GDP | 26.5 | 2024-12-31 |
| 13 | Israel | 64.0 % of GDP | 20.0 | 2024-12-31 |
| 14 | Germany | 63.0 % of GDP | 19.4 | 2024-12-31 |
| 15 | Mexico | 57.0 % of GDP | 15.9 | 2024-12-31 |
| 16 | South Korea | 55.0 % of GDP | 14.7 | 2024-12-31 |
| 17 | Australia | 49.0 % of GDP | 11.2 | 2024-12-31 |
| 18 | Poland | 49.0 % of GDP | 11.2 | 2024-12-31 |
| 19 | Netherlands | 47.0 % of GDP | 10.0 | 2024-12-31 |
| 20 | New Zealand | 46.0 % of GDP | 9.4 | 2024-12-31 |
| 21 | Norway | 44.0 % of GDP | 8.2 | 2024-12-31 |
| 22 | Switzerland | 38.0 % of GDP | 4.7 | 2024-12-31 |
| 23 | Sweden | 33.0 % of GDP | 1.8 | 2024-12-31 |
| 24 | UAE | 28.0 % of GDP | 0.0 | 2024-12-31 |
| 25 | Turkey | 28.0 % of GDP | 0.0 | 2024-12-31 |
Why it matters
Government Debt (% of GDP) is a contributing indicator to the Economic meta-index, one of the five dimensions of The Human Index composite. Higher raw value = more stress.
Movements in this indicator are tracked daily and feed into every country's composite score on the next cron cycle.
Recent analysis
All Pulses →Source & methodology
Raw values are normalized to a 0–100 stress scale per the bounds documented in the codebase. See methodology for the full normalization and band-threshold derivation.