Federal Reserve Economic Data

FRED has several data series related to the US national debt, and today we analyze these series to reveal who holds that debt.

Components of US National Debt

The FRED graph above shows total US national debt (blue solid line) broken down into its two primary categories based on ownership:

• debt held by the public (orange dashed line)
• debt held by government agencies and trusts (teal dotted line), also known as intra-governmental holdings

A wide range of government agencies hold US national debt; two major examples are Social Security funds and federal employee retirement funds. The remainder of the debt is held by the public, including the Federal Reserve. As of the third quarter of 2024, debt held by the public was about $28 trillion, and intra-governmental holdings were about $7 trillion.

Breakdown of Debt Held by the Public

Our second FRED graph further divides debt held by the public (orange dashed line) into two categories:

• debt held by Federal Reserve Banks (teal dotted line)
• debt held by private investors (blue solid line)

After multiple rounds of quantitative easing, the Federal Reserve has become the largest single holder of US national debt. The Fed’s holdings increased from about $1 trillion at the end of 2010 to a peak of more than $6 trillion in 2022. But private-sector debt holdings grew even more significantly, rising from $8 trillion at the end of 2010 to nearly $24 trillion in 2024, reflecting the surge in US national debt.

Foreign central banks and foreign private-sector entities also play a crucial role in absorbing the fast-growing US national debt. Our third FRED graph shows debt held by foreigners (red dotted line), which doubled from about $4 trillion in 2010 to over $8 trillion in 2024. The gold dashed line is total debt held by private investors minus debt held by private foreign investors, which equals debt held by private domestic investors.

More Sources of Debt Data

The US Treasury Bulletin provides a detailed breakdown of public debt holdings among private investors. Those data aren’t currently available in FRED, but FRED does have the Fed’s financial account data, which reports the ownership of total marketable debt. And since most US debt held by the public is marketable, this is a good approximation of public vs. private ownership. Most US debt held by government accounts is non-marketable, as is a relatively small fraction of debt held by the public, primarily through defined benefit pension plans for public sector workers.

You can also check Financial Accounts Table L.210 in FRED for a detailed breakdown of private investor holdings of US debt, including households, banks, insurance companies, public and private pension funds, and mutual funds.

How these graphs were created: First graph: Search FRED for and select “Gross Federal Debt.” Go to the “Edit Graph” section (blue button in the top right) to add the other series: “Federal Debt Held by the Public” and “Federal Debt Held by Agencies and Trusts.” Ensure the units are consistent across the series by using the formula a/1000 to convert millions to billions. Start the graph in 2000-01-01 by using the date entry box above the graph. Second graph: Repeat the process with “Federal Debt Held by the Public,” “Federal Debt Held by Federal Reserve Banks,” “Federal Debt Held by Private Investors.” Third graph: Repeat the process with “Federal Debt Held by Private Investors” and “Federal Debt Held by Foreign and International Investors.” To create the third data series, use the formula a-b for debt held by private domestic investors.

Suggested by YiLi Chien and Ashley Stewart.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) calculates price indexes that help all of us better understand changes in underlying economic activity, including inflation.

One of the BEA’s headline inflation indicators, the personal consumption expenditures price index (PCEPI), is used by the Federal Reserve to adjust monetary policy to promote maximum employment and stable prices. The BEA reports different price indexes for the final goods and services available in the U.S., and the FRED graph above shows their quarterly percent change from a year ago side by side.

• • Orange bars show the personal consumption expenditures price index, which measures prices for both domestic and imported goods and services bought by consumers.
  • Light blue bars show the gross domestic purchases price index, which measures prices for both domestically produced and imported goods and services bought by consumers, businesses, and governments.
  • Dark blue bars show the gross domestic product price index, which measures prices for domestically produced goods and services bought by consumers, businesses, governments, and the rest of the world.

Differences in the scope of these price indicators explain the differences in their year-over-year inflation rates.

This FRED Blog post is an adaptation of The BEA Wire’s “A Historical Look at BEA’s Price Measures.”

How this graph was created: Search FRED for “Personal Consumption Expenditures: Chain-type Price Index.” Next, click on the “Edit Graph” button and select the “Add Line” tab. Search for “Gross domestic purchases (chain-type price index)” and click on “Add data series.” Repeat the last step to add “Gross Domestic Product: Chain-type Price Index” to the graph. Next, select the “Edit Lines” tab to change the units to “Percent Change from Year Ago” and click on “Copy to all.” Last, use the “Format” tab to select “Graph type: Bar.”

Suggested by Diego Mendez-Carbajo.

With household finance, the monthly difference between your net income and your expenses is the cash supply left over that you can save. The US Bureau of Economic Analysis summarizes all this information at the national level. Here at the FRED Blog, we’d like to help connect and clarify those national and household perspectives.

The FRED graph above shows the monthly changes, measured in billions of dollars, in net personal income (blue bars), expenses (green bars), and saving (orange bars) between January and December 2024. Notice the name of the first two data series:

• Net personal income is labeled disposable personal income, which is the sum of all streams of personal income (including employer contributions to pensions, insurance funds, and social security) received by households, minus the personal taxes they paid.
• Expenses is labeled personal outlays, which is the sum of all the payments households made to buy goods and services (including repaying loans), plus donations, fees, and fines paid to the government or to the rest of the world.

Back to the FRED graph: In January and October, the monthly change in disposable income was larger than the change in outlays and personal saving increased. During the rest of the year, the change in outlays was larger than the change in disposable income and total personal saving decreased.

How this graph was created: Browse FRED data by “Release” and navigate the alphabetical listing to “Personal Income and Outlays > Table 2.6. Personal Income and Its Disposition, Monthly.” Next, select the following three series by clicking on the box to the left of their names: “Equals: Disposable personal income,” “Less: Personal outlays,” and “Equals: Personal saving.” Next, click on the “Add to Graph” button at the bottom of the webpage. Next, click on the “Edit Graph” button above the FRED graph and “Edit Lines” by changing the units to “Change, Billions of Dollars.” Click on “Copy to all.” Last, select the “Format” tab to change the “Graph type” to “Bar.”

Suggested by Diego Mendez-Carbajo.