Top 20 Highest Government Debt (1880-2020)

This visualisation presents the top 20 countries by government gross debt in percent of the country's GDP. The debt-to-GDP ratio is a commonly accept method for assessing the significance of a nation's debt. For example, one of the criteria of admission to the European Union's euro currency is that an applicant country's debt should not exceed 60% of that country's GDP. The GDP calculation of many leading industrial countries include taxes such as the value-added tax, which increase the total amount of the gross domestic product and thus reducing the percentage amount of the debt-to-GDP ratio Governments create debt by issuing government bonds and bills. Less creditworthy countries sometimes borrow directly from a supranational organization the World Bank) or international financial institutions.