The following visualizations explore the debt-to-GDP ratios for governments across the world—that is, the gross debt of a country as a percentage of their GDP. The data used to produce the charts in this section come from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) from their National Accounts at a Glance data. In this case, government debt includes currency and deposits, debt securities, loans, insurance, pensions and standardised guarantee schemes, and other accounts payable.
First, let’s get a sense of the countries’ relative debt standing for 2019 for a snapshot of their financial wellbeing.
As pictured in the chart above, Japan has the highest debt-to-GDP ratio in 2019 followed by Greece, Italy, and the United States. Alternatively, Estonia has the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio followed by a huge world power: Russia. There doesn’t seem to be a clear pattern on the chart in relating the size of the country–both in terms of population and geography–and debt-to-GDP ratio. It is helpful to see all countries at once in an easy-to-read bar chart that most people are familiar reading and navigating.
The next visualization represents average debt-to-GDP ratios for OECD for all countries from 1995 to 2021. Instead of data from only one year like in the previous bar chart, this graphic makes it possible to see all countries at one time. Notice at the end of each country’s line, there is a point larger than the rest that represents the given country’s most recent debt-to-GDP ratio for 2021 for easy comparison.
While helpful to compare country data in one succint location, the graphic may be overwhelming to interpret as the reader navigates both the X and Y axes for all 42 countries. In an effort to make the data easier to understand, the data visualization below compares a select number of countries’ ratios over time (from 2000-2010). This graphic makes it very easy to see the relative ranking of countries’ ratios as the years progress, the bars change shape, and the countries move along the y axis.
The ‘race’ element of the visualization was especially powerful to me as a viewer in seeing how all countries’ ratios changed with time in addition to how they changed in comparison to one another. For example, in 2019, all countries’ ratios jump and then fall again with the onset of COVID in 2020. For this reason, this chart has multiple, dynamic purposes in telling the story of debt ratios.