Industrialised nations have the biggest foreign debt

The problem – or privilege – of having a lot of foreign debt is one shared mainly among industrialised nations. Topping the ranking of the countries that borrowed most from others is the United States, which is 17.91 trillion US dollars in debt, according to the latest numbers available in the CIA World Factbook. Next in line is the United Kingdom, which has racked up 8.13 trillion in foreign debt, followed by France, which owes 5.36 trillion.

Even small countries, like Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Belgium appear towards the top of the list which has to do with the banking sectors in these countries buying up foreign debt liabilities as well as the countries’ social systems spending a lot on their citizens.

Other small countries, especially tiny island nations, and many African countries have the least foreign debt, according to the ranking. Other outliers include closed-off nations or dictatorships like Brunei, Turkmenistan, and Bhutan.