Top 25 Countries with Biggest National Debt Problems

The United States is often criticized for its national debt problem, but plenty of other countries have problems as well. In this article, we look at the top 25 countries with the biggest national debt problems.

Calculation

Any citation to any economic figure requires a definition of how the calculation is done first. In this case, we are looking at the national debt as a percentage of the gross domestic product of the country in question. This is the only way to realistically compare one country to another. The following figures represent the size of the debt compared to the GDP as a percentage. Anything at 100 percent or above is considered to negatively impact the country. With this in mind, let’s look at the top 25 countries with the biggest national debt problems. This is as of April 2011.

1 Japan - 225.80
2 Saint Kitts and Nevis - 185.00
3 Lebanon - 150.70
4 Zimbabwe - 149.00
5 Greece - 144.00
6 Iceland - 123.80
7 Jamaica - 123.20
8 Italy - 118.10
9 Singapore - 102.40
10 Belgium - 98.60
11 United States - 97.00
11 Ireland - 94.20
12 Sudan - 94.20
13 Sri Lanka - 86.70
14 France - 83.50
15 Portugal - 83.20
16 Egypt - 80.50
17 Belize - 80.00
18 Hungary - 79.60
19 Germany - 78.80
20 Dominica - 78.00
21 Nicaragua - 78.00
22 Israel - 77.30
23 United Kingdom - 76.50
24 Malta - 72.60
25 Austria - 70.40

As you can see, these numbers are fairly startling. Fully nine countries carry a debt level above the 100 percent marker that indicates problems and others, including the United States, will soon join them. Indeed, there has been some conjecture among economist that a debt crisis in a major first world country like the United States could effectively bring the entire system down given the intertwining of economies these days. Now that is a scary thought.

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