Global government debt ranking 2026: $119.4 trillion, Israel — 22nd, Ukraine — 38th

The US and China account for more than half of the national debt of 180 countries included in the global calculation for 2026. Israel ranked 22nd in absolute terms, Ukraine 38th, but the war has changed the debt picture of these two countries in completely different ways.

Author: Victoria Katsman

In the national debt ranking published on August 26, 2026, 180 countries are compared: their combined obligations are estimated at approximately $119.4 trillion. The US stands apart even in this context — $40.73 trillion. China follows with $22.29 trillion, Japan with $8.95 trillion. Together, the US and China account for about 53% of the total amount, and the top ten about 81%.

The ranking of 180 countries by absolute volume of national debt was published by the analytical center Experts Club and calculated based on the official April database of the World Economic Outlook of the International Monetary Fund, where GDP forecasts and the General government gross debt indicator are used for country comparison; the April IMF report is available here.

For Israel, the table starts much lower, but the result is still noticeable: 22nd place, about $502.7 billion and 69.8% of GDP. Ukraine is 38th, $276.2 billion and 122.6% of GDP. On one line, it turns out that Israel owes almost 1.8 times more than Ukraine; on the neighboring indicator, the picture is already opposite — the Ukrainian debt is much heavier relative to the size of the economy.

Here, I would not rush to declare one country more indebted and another more stable. For readers of NANews — Israel News something else is more important: this ranking unexpectedly shows how the same hundreds of billions of dollars can mean completely different things for two states simultaneously bearing huge military expenses.

The ranking looks simple, but it is not a list of accounts lying in the ministries of finance.

First, an important clarification, without which the entire table begins to mislead. This is not an official ‘IMF ranking’ in the sense that the International Monetary Fund ranked countries from first to 180th place. The calculation was prepared by Experts Club using the April World Economic Outlook IMF database and the unified indicator General government gross debt.

For the Israeli reader, it is better to decipher this term immediately. General government is not only the central government. The methodology covers a broader sector of public administration so that countries with different budget systems can be placed side by side. The authors took the GDP forecast in current dollars and multiplied it by the projected share of gross government debt in GDP. This is how the absolute amounts were obtained.

From here arises the first discrepancy, which is not actually a discrepancy. The US federal debt indeed crossed $40 trillion on August 18 and amounted to $40.047 trillion, while the ranking shows $40.73 trillion. The first figure is the actual American federal debt on a specific day. The second is the calculation for the entire 2026 year using a broader international methodology.

For the same reason, searching for ‘Israel’s national debt 2026’, ‘how much Israel owes’, ‘Ukraine’s national debt 2026’ or ‘how much Ukraine owes’ can yield different answers. It is necessary to check each time whether it is about the central government or the entire public administration sector, the fact on a specific date or the forecast for the end of the year, gross debt or government and government-guaranteed debt.

For Ukraine, this distinction gives a difference of more than $60 billion.

Israel entered the war with a debt cushion — over three years it has noticeably decreased.

The Israeli line in the ranking is especially interesting not because of its neighbors, but because of where the current nearly 70% of GDP came from.

Before the start of the war, public finances looked completely different. The Bank of Israel indicates that at the beginning of 2023, the ratio of national debt to GDP was about 60.5%. By the end of 2025, the figure rose to approximately 68.5%.

This already allows today’s $502.7 billion to be read differently. The growth occurred not just because a large economy borrows more money annually.

The Bank of Israel estimates the fiscal cost of the war, which began on October 7, 2023, at approximately 350 billion shekels for 2023–2026. Moreover, this estimate does not include decisions made after the start of the operation against Iran in February 2026. Only for 2025, about 116 billion shekels of expenses are accounted for. And approximately half of the total military costs were financed through borrowing.

Here is the connection that is not visible in the global ranking: Israel rose from the pre-war 60.5% to the current approximately 69–70% not in an abstract cycle of government borrowing. A significant part of the additional debt is a consequence of the war.

At the same time, the state continues to borrow mainly domestically. According to preliminary data from the Israeli Ministry of Finance, in 2025, gross placements amounted to about 207 billion shekels. Approximately 85% was on the domestic market of tradable bonds, another 3% on domestic non-market instruments, and about 12% on foreign markets.

For risk assessment, this is almost more important than place No. 22. A state capable of borrowing a significant part of the money in its own financial system and its own currency is in a different position than a country critically dependent on external creditors.

But even here, there is no reason to be reassured by the single figure of 69.8%. The IMF in July raised the forecast for Israeli national debt for 2026 to 70.1% of GDP, expecting a public administration sector deficit of 6.2% of GDP. The Bank of Israel gives other estimates, as it uses its own scenario. This is another reason not to mix indicators from different institutions into one ‘correct’ figure.

Ukraine: $276 billion in the ranking, $214 billion at the Ministry of Finance, and 111.8% of GDP in the fresh IMF

The Ukrainian line requires even more caution.

In the global calculation, Ukraine ranks 38th: $276.2 billion and 122.6% of GDP. Directly before it is Sweden with $279.3 billion, followed by Taiwan with $269.2 billion.

However, on August 27, literally a day before the preparation of this material, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine published the actual amount of national and government-guaranteed debt as of July 31: $214.18 billion.

I separately verified these two indicators precisely because the difference is too large to leave it unexplained. The Ukrainian Ministry of Finance calculates national and government-guaranteed debt according to the national system and on a specific date. The global table uses the broader IMF General government and forecast data for 2026. Therefore, $214.18 billion does not refute $276.2 billion — these numbers answer different questions.

But the April figure of 122.6% can no longer be issued as the freshest assessment of Ukraine.

On July 20, the IMF completed another review of the program for Ukraine and lowered the forecast for national debt at the end of 2026 to 111.8% of GDP. In the baseline forecast for 2027, the figure should decrease to 110.3%. The Fund explains the revision, including changes in the approach to part of the financing, and now assesses the Ukrainian debt as sustainable on a prospective basis with the implementation of the provided program and financial support.

Thus, place No. 38 is based on the best complete international database, allowing the comparison of 180 countries at once, but it no longer reflects all individual changes that appeared after April.

This is not a shortcoming of the Ukrainian line specifically. This is the price of any global ranking: if you wait for the freshest national data for each country, countries cease to be comparable by one date and one methodology.

Ukrainian debt is heavier than Israeli, but its structure breaks simple comparison.

122.6% of GDP in the April database or 111.8% in the July estimate — in both cases, this is significantly higher than the Israeli level. However, further comparison ‘Israel — 70%, Ukraine — more than 110%’ again begins to lose important details.

As of July 31, about 76.3% of Ukraine’s national and government-guaranteed debt was on external obligations. More than 64% of the portfolio was concessional financing. The largest creditor remained the European Union — about 38.8% of all debt, or €72.51 billion.

The weighted average interest rate is 4.40%, the average maturity is 13.06 years. This is an unusual combination for a country at war with a debt exceeding 100% of GDP: huge relative debt coexists with long terms and a large share of concessional loans.

For the Israeli audience, it is useful not to look for a direct local analogue here. Ukraine finances the state in conditions of full-scale war primarily thanks to international organizations, the European Union, and partner state governments. Israel relies much more on its own bond market. This does not make one debt ‘good’ and the other ‘bad’. The risks are simply in different places.

For Ukraine, the continuation of external financing, the conditions of programs, and debt agreements with partners are critical. For Israel, the growth of the debt burden is more closely related to the size of the deficit, future defense spending, the internal cost of borrowing, and whether the economy can grow faster than the debt.

That’s why two countries, both financing a war, cannot be honestly compared by just the Debt/GDP column.

Israel’s neighbor in the table is Russia. This is another trap of the ranking.

In 21st place before Israel is Russia: about $507.2 billion of national debt against Israel’s $502.7 billion. The difference is less than $5 billion.

At the same time, in the table, the Russian debt is only 19.1% of GDP, while the Israeli is 69.8%. If you read the ranking literally, it creates the impression of an almost exemplary Russian debt position.

But this line says nothing about sanctions restrictions, the access of the Russian state and companies to international capital, the cost of individual borrowings, the structure of state funds, and the economic consequences of the war. The compilers of the ranking separately warn that absolute debt is not a rating of financial stability.

There are even more illustrative examples. Japan is in third place with $8.95 trillion and a debt of more than 204% of GDP. Germany owes about $3.52 trillion, but its ratio is 64.6%. Singapore shows about 171.9% of GDP with simultaneously very large state financial assets. One number cannot describe all these systems.

In the Middle East, Israel in absolute terms is above Saudi Arabia with $445.3 billion, Turkey with $418.9 billion, Egypt with $373.8 billion, the UAE with $194.9 billion, and Iran with $111.9 billion. But Egypt’s debt burden is 87% of GDP, while Saudi Arabia’s is only 32.1%. And again, the order of countries changes immediately after moving to the second column.

Moreover, the regional picture is incomplete. For 17 countries and territories, the authors did not find simultaneously comparable GDP data and General government gross debt for 2026 and deliberately did not substitute last year’s figures. Among the missing are Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and ‘Palestine’.

$119.4 trillion is a large number, but more interesting is what is hidden inside.

After all the comparisons, the first figure of the ranking begins to look a little different.

Yes, 180 countries together owe about $119.4 trillion. Yes, the US and China concentrate more than half of this amount. Yes, Israel is in 22nd place, Ukraine in 38th.

But for Israel, today’s place cannot be normally explained without October 7, 2023: the debt-to-GDP ratio rose from about 60.5% to 68.5% by the end of 2025, and the Bank of Israel estimates the fiscal cost of the war for 2023–2026 at about 350 billion shekels. About half of these costs were financed by debt.

The Ukrainian story is different. A higher debt relative to GDP is combined with the fact that over 64% of the portfolio is concessional financing, the EU became the largest creditor, the average maturity exceeds 13 years, and the fresh IMF estimate is already noticeably lower than the April global database figure.

Therefore, the ranking itself remains useful — precisely as an equal ruler for 180 different economies. Problems begin when a place in it is attempted to be turned into a diagnosis.

For NANews — Israel News, the more important question is not why Israel is 22nd and Ukraine 38th. A much more substantial observation is that the war raised the debt of both countries, but one mainly finances itself through its own developed market, while the other has built a significant part of military financing on international concessional loans.

The next column after the size of the debt may therefore be more important than the ranking itself: to whom the state owes, how much it pays for this money, and when it must return it.