The majority of Treasury securities are held by the American public and institutions, including the Federal Reserve. FRED recently added data from the Treasury International Capital (TIC) system. As the name implies, this dataset provides a global scope. In March 2026, the nine largest foreign holders of U.S. long- and short-term Treasury Securities were (in descending order)
This May 2026 FEDS Note by Andrew McCallum et al. highlights that “these nine countries collectively hold about 45 percent of foreign-held U.S. Treasuries, a share that has remained relatively stable since the early 2000s.” However, the position of some of those countries in that list has shifted substantially in recent years.
Stay tuned to the FRED Blog as we continue to dive into the TIC collection of cross-border securities positions and transactions data.
How this graph was created: Search FRED for and select “Foreign Portfolio Holdings of U.S. Long-Term and Short-Term Treasury Securities: Japan.” Click on the “Edit Graph” button and select the “Add Line” tab to search for “Foreign Portfolio Holdings of U.S. Long-Term and Short-Term Treasury Securities: United Kingdom.” Don’t forget to click on “Add data series.” Repeat the last two steps to add data for the other countries in the list.
Suggested by Diego Mendez-Carbajo.