Public debt in years of taxes

Understanding this map

Why this ratio

Debt as a % of GDP compares it with all of the country's wealth, but the state only collects part of it. A debt of 100% of GDP is a little over two years of revenue in France (about 45% of GDP), but more than five years in a country that collects only 18%, such as India. It is a way of measuring debt against the state's capacity to raise resources.

A theoretical figure

No state repays its debt by devoting all its taxes to it: it rolls it over, and what really weighs each year is interest (“interest / taxes” view). This ratio rather shows the scale of accumulated debt and its trajectory. In France it rose from about 0.9 years in 1990 to 2.6 years in 2024; Germany is at 1.7 years, the United States close to 5, Japan close to 7.

Misleading cases

Singapore (nearly 12 years) borrows not to fund a deficit but to invest the savings of its pension fund; the state owns far more assets than it owes. Congo-Brazzaville lives mainly off oil, which is not a tax. High gross debt does not always mean a fragile state.

Limits

Levies count taxes and social contributions, not other revenue: oil or mining rents, dividends from state companies, foreign grants. The ratio is therefore overstated where such revenue matters (Mexico and Congo draw much of their resources from oil); countries collecting less than 6% of GDP (mostly oil states) are excluded. Interest and debt (IMF) and levies (UNU-WIDER) come from two sources whose scope can differ slightly (general or central government). Series from 1980; when a year's levies are not yet published, the map carries the last known value (up to three years, the tooltip says so). World and continents: total interest (or debt) divided by total levies of available countries, shown when they make up at least 60% of the zone's GDP.