While the “super committee” charged with hammering out a debt deal hits a partisan wall and threatens the American public with austerity cuts, editors at The Guardian’s Data Blog take crack at breaking down U.S. national debt by country. At $1.14 trillion, China owns the biggest chunk of it, followed by Japan and the United Kingdom.

As the numbers point out, the national debt has nearly doubled in a mere six years to an astronomical $14 trillion. –ARK

The Guardian Data Blog:

The key findings are: • As of April this year, US Treasury bonds owned overseas accounted for $4.7tn of the national debt — up 8% on last year. That’s not everything — the US now owes over $14tn. • China is the biggest owner of US [Treasury] bonds — over $1.14tn by September this year — down -0.3% on last year. • Bonds bought in the UK (mainly private investors and pension funds) are third on the list at $421.6bn — up 120.7%, which is the biggest increase. • Russia saw the biggest decrease, down 45.3% since last year to $94.6bn.

It reflects a US national debt which has grown starkly, from $7.8tn in 2005 to busting through the US debt ceiling $14.294tn earlier this year — according to these day by day figures.

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