Ranking The Top 20 Countries With The Most External Debt and Population

Ranking total annual external debt ratings by country, from highest to lowest.

Global Firepower tracks External Debt of each participant in its annual defense review.
External Debt is defined as both public and private debt carried as owed to outside parties (namely the international community) and may be repayable through currency exchanges, consumer/durable goods, and applicable services.

Typically, larger, better-developed nations carry equally-large external debt totals to compensate for their population sizes. External Debt is just one outlying factory considered in the GFP ranking concerning a given nation’s fiscal health – namely due to the inherently large cost of going to war or maintaining a sizeable standing military. For the purposes of the GFP ranking, External Debt is used as a penalty.

Data presented on this list is through 2021. Estimates are made when official data is not available.

1. United States of America – $17,910,000,000,000 ($17.9 Trillion – 2021) (328.2 million 2019 – Population)

2. United Kingdom – $8,126,000,000,000 ($8.1 Trillion) (66.65 million 2019)

3. France – $5,360,000,000,000 ($5.3 Trillion) (67.06 million 2019)

4. Germany – $5,326,000,000,000 ($5.3 Trillion) (83.02 million 2019)

5. Netherlands – $4,063,000,000,000 ($4 Trillion) (17.28 million 2019)

6. Japan – $3,240,000,000,000 ($3.2 Trillion) (126.3 million 2019)

7. Ireland – $2,470,000,000,000 ($2.4 Trillion) (4.904 million 2019)

8. Italy – $2,444,000,000,000 ($2.4 Trillion) (60.36 million 2019)

9. Spain – $2,094,000,000,000 ($2 Trillion) (46.94 million 2019)

10. Australia – $1,714,000,000,000 ($1.7 Trillion) (25.36 million 2019)

11. Switzerland – $1,664,000,000,000 ($1. 6 Trillion) (8.545 million 2019)

12. Canada – $1,608,000,000,000 ($1.6 Trillion) (37.59 million 2019)

13. China – $1,598,000,000,000 ($1.5 Trillion) (1.398 billion 2019)

14. Belguim – $ 1,281,000,000,000 ($1.2 Trillion) (11.46 million 2019)

15. Sweden – $939,900,000,000 ($900 Billion) (10.23 million 2019)

16. Norway – $642,300,000,000 ($642 Billion) (5.328 million 2019)

17. Austria – $630,800,000,000 ($630 Billion) (8.859 million 2019)

18. Singapore – $566,100,000,000 ($566 Billion) (5.704 million 2019)

19. Brazil $547,400,000,000 ($547 Billion) (211 million 2019)

20. Russia $ 539,600,000,000 ($539 Billion) (144.4 million 2019)

NOTE : Nigeria  is ranked 68th on this list. With a total external debt of $40,960,000,000 ($40 Billion) and a population of 201 million in the year 2019. Debt per head in Nigeria is roughly around $199.0

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