US Public Debt as Percent of GDP (I:USPDGDP)

US Public Debt as Percent of GDP is at 0.12%, compared to 0.12% last quarter and 0.12% last year. This is higher than the long term average of 0.11%.

US Public Debt measures the total public debt in the United States divided by the total GDP in that same period. In a global context, as the percentage of debt increases compared to the GDP, the probability of defaulting increases, as the ability to pay back debt decreases. When comparing public debt of different economies, this measure allows to see how debt grows in real terms compared to the size of the underlying national economy. In other words, one can compare how an economy's use of debt contributes to growth in GDP. Historically, the US public debt as a percentage of GDP has steadily increased during the 2000s from a trough of 54.24% in 2000 Q4, to a peak of 105.3% in 2016 Q4.