# How much is our national debt again?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-our-national-debt-again/310655>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 1, 2005, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-our-national-debt-again/310655 "2005-07-01T06:14:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Rapier42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/90db22/32.png) [@Rapier42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rapier42)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-our-national-debt-again/310655/1 "2005-07-01T06:14:26Z")

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Read recently that at last count, the U.S. national debt was over 7 _trillion_ dollars… is that right? Who on earth do we owe all that money too? How much do other countries owe us? Anyone have some good references on this?

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**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-our-national-debt-again/310655/2 "2005-07-01T06:20:45Z")

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Start at the website of the [US Treasury Department.](http://www.treas.gov/education/faq/markets/national-debt.shtml)

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**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-our-national-debt-again/310655/3 "2005-07-01T06:28:20Z")

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When the government spends more than it receives in tax revenue, it runs a _budget deficit_.

To cover it, they borrow money. The Federal government’s accumulated borrowings is the national debt, now running at 7.8 trillion dollars. That works out to about $26,000 per US citizen (and growing).

[http://www.concordcoalition.org/issues/feddebt/](http://www.concordcoalition.org/issues/feddebt/)

To borrow money, the Treasury issues bonds. Who holds them?  
From the GAO:  
The biggest holder of Federal Bonds is… the Federal Government! These are Federal Trust Funds, for example the Social Security Trust Fund. In total the Feds hold about 42% of the debt.

The Federal Reserve, which conducts monetary policy, owns about 9.5% of the debt. States and localities own 7.9%.

Private citizens own 18.4%. Foreigners own 22%, with Japan topping the list.

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**Author:** ![Scuba\_Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Scuba\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scuba_Ben)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-is-our-national-debt-again/310655/4 "2005-07-01T12:36:23Z")

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From the link posted by **David Simmons** , the US national debt as of Wednesday was $7,776,435,356,595.00. Check back later for Thursday’s figure.