The $39 trillion U.S. national debt isn’t as high as Japan’s and Singapore’s relative to economy size—and yet it’s still worse somehow

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and U.S. President Donald Trump sit in the Oval Office. (Credit: Aaron Schwartz—CNP/Bloomberg/Getty Images)

Statistics don’t always tell the full story, and the U.S. national debt is evidence as to why.

Despite its $39 trillion national debt, the U.S. barely cracks the top 10 in countries for debt relative to the size of their economies. While on the surface this may seem like a good thing, economists warn that actually, the U.S. still has more to worry about than even the countries with ballooning debt-to-GDP ratios.