LETTER

National debt per person?

Japan has highest national debt per citizen with $89,000, according to the newest  reports.  With a population of 126,847,639, each Japanese national owes 89,525.51 of the $11.4 trillion national debt.

Compared to the United States, Japan’s national debt per citizen is more by $19,345, representing a difference of 24%. Globally, the US has the highest national debt at $23.2 trillion, but with a population of 330,315,550.

China is the only country with a significant lower national debt when ranked against other leading economies.  China’s $5,866 national debt per person is over 15 times lower than in Japan and over 11 times lower than in the US.  China has a population of about 1.4 billion with a national debt of $8.4 trillion.

Other heavily indebted countries include Belgium ($50,462), the United Kingdom ($49,211), Italy ($47,147) –  and Canada ($46,035).  On the lower side, Nigeria and Indonesia are among the least indebted countries with each citizen owing $707 and $1,283 respectively.

An overview of national debts shows that many governments are surviving on borrowed money. Borrowing enables governments to cover budget shortfalls without raising taxes or cutting back public spending on social good and services. But borrowing creates indebtedness; debts are costs we have to re-pay – as a whole country, not household by household like personal debt. It seems to me, however, isn’t the real issue who is holding all this debt and how exposed are these debtor nations to having their debts suddenly called?

Justin Baltran

Ottawa