Government Debt to GDP - Ranking 1990

The 2025 IMF data reveals a stark global divergence in public debt burdens, with Japan at 229.572% of GDP and Sudan at 221.461% heading the ranking. These top-tier figures reflect distinct structural pressures: Japan’s debt stems from decades of domestic bond financing and deflationary stagnation, while Sudan’s results from prolonged conflict and currency collapse. Singapore, at 175.614%, demonstrates that high debt does not necessarily signal crisis when backed by substantial sovereign assets. At the opposite extreme, Liechtenstein’s 0.5% and Brunei Darussalam’s 2.333% illustrate the advantage of small, resource-rich economies with minimal welfare states and limited borrowing needs. The bottom three are dominated by microstates or energy exporters, where low debt is a function of fiscal surpluses or constrained public sectors rather than deliberate austerity. Future reshuffling of this leaderboard hinges on whether aging economies like Japan can sustain debt service amid rising interest rates, or if climate-related expenditures force low-debt nations to borrow substantially.