Debt Clock: US National Debt, World Debt and Canada's Debt, Live Estimate
Free live debt clock: a running estimate of the US national debt from the Treasury's daily figures, plus world government debt and Canada's federal debt, the share per person, household and taxpayer, debt-to-GDP, interest per second, the deficit, and charts back to 1790. Every number shows its source and how it is estimated.
Estimates from official data, for information. The ticking numbers start from the last figure each government or the IMF published and add the average change per second since then . They are not exact, and nothing here is advice.
Total public debt as a percentage of GDP, quarterly since 1966 (FRED series GFDEGDQ188S).
Interest on public issues (paid to holders outside the government), October to September.
All interest-bearing Treasury debt, monthly since 2001.
Monthly Treasury Statement. Bars above zero = spending more than came in that month; below zero = a surplus month (often April, when taxes are due).
The debt ceiling is not shown: Treasury does not publish it in a simple live table. Related: interest rates and the Fed on MES Market Signals · what a dollar from any year is worth today.
| # | Country | Debt % of GDP | Debt | Per person | GDP |
|---|
IMF World Economic Outlook (DataMapper): general government gross debt and GDP in current US dollars. Recent years are IMF estimates or projections. Click a column to sort.
Statistics Canada table 10-10-0002-01 (federal debt = accumulated deficit). The yearly jumps in March come from end-of-fiscal-year accounting. Federal only: the provinces have debts of their own, which the IMF figure includes.
Sources and their status
A live US, world and Canada debt clock from official numbers
MES Debt Clock shows the US national debt, world government debt and Canada’s federal debt as running estimates, with the share per person, per household and per taxpayer, debt-to-GDP, what the interest costs every second, and charts back to 1790. Every number says where it comes from, when it was last published and how the in-between estimate is worked out.
Where the numbers come from
US debt: the Treasury’s “Debt to the Penny” (every business day) and Historical Debt Outstanding (since 1790); interest: Treasury’s monthly interest expense and average interest rate tables; deficit: the Monthly Treasury Statement. GDP, population, households and debt-to-GDP history: FRED, the database of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Taxpayers: about 160 million individual income tax returns a year (IRS filing statistics, rounded). Other countries and the world: the IMF World Economic Outlook. Canada: Statistics Canada (federal debt, population, GDP) and the Bank of Canada exchange rate. The page asks for fresh data at most about once an hour.
Questions
Why does the number tick so fast?
Because the US debt has been growing by billions of dollars a day on average. The page spreads the average change over the window you pick (30 days, 90 days or a year) across every second. Real borrowing happens in lumps on auction and payment days, so the official figure the next morning can land above or below the estimate.
Is it the same as the famous debt clock in New York or other debt clock sites?
No. This is MES’s own page, built from the public Treasury, FRED, IMF and Statistics Canada data, with the method shown next to each number so you can check it.
What is the difference between debt and deficit?
The deficit is the shortfall in one year (spending minus revenue); the debt is the total of all past borrowing still owed. Deficits add to the debt.
Why is Canada’s debt-to-GDP different on the World tab?
The Canada tab shows the federal government only (Statistics Canada’s accumulated deficit). The IMF figure on the World tab is general government gross debt: federal plus provinces, local governments and pension plans, before subtracting assets, which is why it is much higher.
Does my share mean I owe this money?
No. Per person figures are a way to picture the size of the debt. Governments pay interest and roll over debt from taxes and new borrowing; nobody gets a personal bill.