The Debt Sphere

How the Debt Sphere works

What the sphere shows

The sphere is the U.S. national debt, drawn from U.S. Department of the Treasury data. It grows and shrinks with the debt. Its gold surface is debt held by the public: money the government owes to investors outside the federal government, such as individuals, banks, mutual funds, state and local governments and foreign governments. Its blue surface is intragovernmental debt: money the government owes its own trust funds, such as Social Security and federal retirement programs. A gold shell around the sphere marks the statutory debt limit set by Congress. The shell disappears on dates when Congress had the limit suspended. The sphere's size is schematic, and the U.S. outline on it is illustrative, not data.

The large total at the top is total public debt outstanding from Treasury's Debt to the Penny.

Debt held by the public and intragovernmental holdings

Treasury's Debt to the Penny splits total public debt outstanding into two parts. In GENM's words: debt held by the public is what the federal government owes to lenders outside itself, whether people, businesses, banks, state and local governments, foreign governments or the Federal Reserve Banks. Intragovernmental holdings is what the government owes itself: Treasury securities kept as assets by its own accounts, chiefly trust funds such as Social Security and federal retirement programs. Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury, Debt to the Penny. The Who holds the debt chart above shows how the two have changed over Treasury's Debt to the Penny history, using Treasury's figures for each record date.

Who holds the debt worldwide

The worldwide view shows the largest foreign holders of U.S. Treasury securities from Treasury's Treasury International Capital (TIC) System, Major Foreign Holders of Treasury Securities. Treasury publishes holdings at the end of each month, in billions of dollars, about two months after the month ends, and revises earlier months, including after its annual survey of foreign holdings. The view shows the latest month Treasury has published and the countries Treasury lists that month, ranked by holdings. Foreign holdings are compared with debt held by the public on the last Debt to the Penny record date of the same month, never with total public debt and never with today's figure. Holders inside the U.S. are debt held by the public minus foreign holdings for that month; intragovernmental holdings are not part of it. TIC records holdings by the country where the securities are held in custody, which may not be the country of the ultimate owner. That is why custodial centers such as Belgium, Luxembourg, the Cayman Islands and the United Kingdom rank high. Treasury's own note on the table, quoted: "Since U.S. securities held in overseas custody accounts may not be attributed to the actual owners, the data may not provide a precise accounting of individual country ownership of Treasury securities." (Treasury's table, notes). The towers and arcs show holdings at month-end, not money moving. If the GENM data service cannot be reached, the view shows the last TIC month saved in your browser and says so.

The four readouts

• Public (GENM-002): debt held by the public, from Treasury's Debt to the Penny.
• Intragov (GENM-003): intragovernmental holdings, from Treasury's Debt to the Penny.
• Limit headroom (calculated from Treasury data): the statutory debt limit minus debt subject to the limit (GENM-004), both from the Debt Subject to Limit table of Treasury's Daily Treasury Statement. Treasury publishes these figures rounded to the nearest million dollars. When the limit is suspended, the readout says so instead of showing a number.
• Cash (GENM-005): the closing balance of the Treasury General Account at the Federal Reserve, the government's main cash account, from the Operating Cash Balance table of Treasury's Daily Treasury Statement. It has often fallen sharply during past debt limit standoffs.

Moving through time

Drag the sphere, or move the timeline slider. Dragging left shows history only: actual Treasury figures for each date, back to October 2005, marked HISTORICAL. Every readout changes to that date. Spin to today returns to the latest Treasury figures.

Share this moment shares or copies a link to the date you are looking at. Save image downloads a picture of the current view with its source line.

How current the data is

Treasury updates Debt to the Penny at the end of each business day with data from the previous business day. The Daily Treasury Statement is published each business day, covering the previous business day. So the latest figures are one business day behind, and there are no weekend or holiday figures. The record dates in the source line below tell you exactly which day the figures are for. If the GENM data service cannot be reached, the tool shows the last Treasury data saved in your browser and says so.

What this tool is not

Nothing on this page is financial or investment advice. Past dates show U.S. Treasury figures for that date.