Q.Debt held by the public vs intragovernmental debt: what is the difference?

The public part is the one that hits credit markets and drives interest costs. The intragovernmental part is real money owed to retirees and workers, and as Social Security spends down its reserves, it is quietly turning into public debt. That is why its share has fallen from 43.9% in 2007 to 19.3% today.

Key numbers

Download the data (CSV): debt held by the public, intragovernmental holdings and the intragovernmental share at every fiscal year end since 1997, from Treasury's Debt to the Penny API.

The two kinds, in plain words

Every Treasury IOU sits on one side of a single line: is the owner inside the federal government or outside it?

• Held by the public. Treasury bills, notes, bonds and savings bonds owned by anyone outside the government. That includes you if you hold a savings bond, your money market fund, banks, pension funds, insurers, state governments, foreign central banks, and the Federal Reserve. The Fed counts as "public" because it sits outside the federal budget. This is the debt the Treasury had to sell in markets to raise cash.
• Intragovernmental. Special nonmarketable securities, the Government Account Series, that the Treasury issues to its own trust funds and other accounts. When Social Security collects more in payroll taxes than it pays out, the law says the surplus must be invested in these securities. The fund earns interest on them, and when it needs cash to pay benefits, it redeems them.

Treasury's own definition, from the Debt to the Penny dataset: intragovernmental holdings are "Government Account Series securities held by Government trust funds, revolving funds, and special funds," plus Federal Financing Bank securities.

Who holds the $7.8 trillion

On September 30, 2026, per Table 6 Schedule D of the Monthly Treasury Statement:

1. Social Security: $2,180.4 billion in the retirement (OASI) fund plus $260.6 billion in the disability (DI) fund, $2.44 trillion, 31.6% of all government account holdings.
2. Military Retirement Fund: $2.12 trillion, 27.4%. It grew $313.5 billion in fiscal 2026 because the Defense Department and the Treasury pay into it for future military pensions.
3. Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund (federal civilian pensions): $1.19 trillion.
4. Smaller accounts: military retiree health care ($507 billion), the FHA mortgage insurance fund ($202 billion), Medicare's Supplementary Medical Insurance fund ($177 billion), the FDIC's Deposit Insurance Fund ($143 billion) and the Unemployment Trust Fund ($93 billion).

So "money the government owes itself" is, in practice, money it owes to retirees, veterans and federal workers under laws that promise them benefits.

Why the intragovernmental share keeps falling

From 1997 to 2007, Social Security took in far more than it paid, and those surpluses were lent to the Treasury, so intragovernmental debt grew fast. Since then two things changed:

• Public borrowing exploded. From fiscal 2007 to fiscal 2026, debt held by the public went from $5.05 trillion to $32.43 trillion, 6.4 times, through the 2008 crisis, the 2020 pandemic and steady deficits. Intragovernmental debt only doubled, from $3.96 trillion to $7.75 trillion.
• Social Security started cashing its bonds in. The retirement fund's holdings fell by $220.4 billion in fiscal 2026 alone. Each redemption means the Treasury needs cash it does not have, so it borrows that cash from the public.

That second point is the mechanism to understand: when a trust fund redeems a bond, intragovernmental debt goes down and debt held by the public goes up by the same amount. Total debt does not change. Who is owed does.

Does it count toward the debt ceiling?

Yes, almost all of it. The statutory limit applies to total debt, both kinds, minus a few small exclusions. On October 22, 2026, debt subject to the limit was $40.244 trillion against a limit of $41.104 trillion. The full mechanics are in what is the debt ceiling.

This is also why intragovernmental accounts get pulled into every debt-limit standoff. Treasury's "extraordinary measures" include suspending new investments in the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund and the federal employees' Thrift Savings Plan G Fund, which frees room under the limit for a few months. The funds are made whole, with interest, once the limit is raised (Treasury, Description of the Extraordinary Measures, 2019).

Which number should you watch?

Depends on the question:

• How much has the government borrowed from the economy? Debt held by the public. The Congressional Budget Office uses it as its headline debt measure, and it drives interest costs: almost all of the $2.9 billion a day the US pays in net interest goes to public holders.
• How close is the debt ceiling? Total debt, close to debt subject to the limit.
• How much has the government promised? Neither. Both leave out future Social Security and pension promises beyond what the trust funds hold.

Common misconceptions

FAQ

What is the difference between debt held by the public and intragovernmental debt?

Debt held by the public is Treasury debt owned by anyone outside the federal government: people, funds, banks, states, foreign investors and the Federal Reserve. Intragovernmental debt is Treasury debt owned by federal accounts, mostly trust funds such as Social Security and federal retirement funds. On October 22, 2026 they were $32.6 trillion and $7.8 trillion.

Who holds intragovernmental debt?

Federal trust funds and other government accounts. On September 30, 2026 the biggest were Social Security's two trust funds ($2.44 trillion), the Military Retirement Fund ($2.12 trillion) and the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund ($1.19 trillion), per the Monthly Treasury Statement.

Does intragovernmental debt count toward the debt ceiling?

Yes. Almost all of both kinds counts toward the statutory debt limit. On October 22, 2026, debt subject to the limit was $40.244 trillion against total debt of $40.444 trillion; the small gap is mostly items the law excludes, such as unamortized discount on bills and notes.

Does the Federal Reserve's Treasury holding count as debt held by the public?

Yes. The Fed is outside the federal budget, so the Treasuries it owns are counted as debt held by the public, even though the Fed sends its profits back to the Treasury when it has them.

Which debt number do economists use?

Mostly debt held by the public, because it is what the government has borrowed in credit markets and what drives interest costs and borrowing needs. The Congressional Budget Office reports debt held by the public as its headline measure. Total debt is the number that counts against the debt ceiling.

Sources

All checked October 24, 2026.

Primary (US Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service)

• Debt to the Penny, via the FiscalData API: debt held by the public $32,597.7 billion, intragovernmental holdings $7,846.7 billion, total $40,444.3 billion on Oct 22 2026; the last business day of every September since 1997 for the CSV and the share chart.
• Monthly Treasury Statement, Table 6 Schedule D (investments of federal government accounts in federal securities), September 2026: closing balances by account and fiscal-year-to-date net change.
• Interest Expense on the Public Debt Outstanding: $291.9 billion of FY2026 interest on Government Account Series securities.
• Daily Treasury Statement, Debt Subject to Limit (Table III-C): $40.244 trillion subject to the $41.104 trillion limit, Oct 22 2026.
• US Treasury, Description of the Extraordinary Measures, March 5 2019: CSRDF and TSP G Fund measures and how the funds are made whole.

Social Security

• Social Security Board of Trustees, 2026 Annual Report: highlights (reserves $2,721 billion at the start of 2025) and conclusion (OASI reserves depleted in late 2032).

Related on Tensorust

• Who owns the US debt?, What is the debt ceiling?, How much interest does the US pay per day?, and the parent article, Boomers, assets and the debt hot potato.