Three measures of government debt are in common use — federal-only debt, IMF net debt, and general government gross debt — and each produces a different cross-country ranking. On the cleanest cross-country measure (general government gross debt, the one used by major rating agencies and the OECD), Canada sits at roughly 112.5% of GDP in 2026 — third of seven in the G7, between the United Kingdom (~104%) and France (~116%).
The answer to how indebted Canada is compared to its G7 peers depends on which measure is used. This page sets out what each measure includes, what it excludes, and where Canada sits on each, using the most recent IMF Fiscal Monitor projections for general government gross debt as the headline comparison.
General government gross debt consolidates federal, provincial/state, territorial, and local liabilities without netting any offsetting assets. It is the measure with the fewest cross-country methodology asymmetries, and it is the one Moody's, S&P, Fitch, and the OECD treat as the primary cross-country reference. Toggle between successive IMF Fiscal Monitor vintages below.
Source: IMF Fiscal Monitor, April 2026. Includes federal, provincial/state, and local government liabilities.
| Rank | Country | Gross debt (% of GDP) |
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Sovereign indebtedness can be measured in several ways. Each captures a different slice of government liabilities and produces a different cross-country picture.
Canada's federal debt sits at roughly 43% of GDP. This figure excludes provincial and territorial liabilities, which in a decentralised federation are substantial — Ontario and Quebec alone carry liabilities comparable to mid-sized sovereign borrowers. Federal-only figures are not directly comparable to general government figures used by unitary states.
Net debt subtracts financial assets from gross liabilities. For Canada, the IMF nets out roughly $750 billion in CPP and QPP assets. Japan's GPIF is treated similarly; the US Social Security trust fund holds intragovernmental Treasuries that wash out; France, Italy, the UK, and Germany have no comparably large prefunded pension pools to net. The treatment of prefunded pension assets is methodologically asymmetric across the G7 — some economies have such pools to net, others do not — which produces a measure that places countries with large prefunded social-insurance funds favourably and countries without them less so. On this measure, Canada ranks favourably within the G7.
Gross general government debt consolidates federal, provincial/state, territorial, and local liabilities without netting any offsetting assets. It is the measure with the fewest cross-country methodology asymmetries, and it is the one Moody's, S&P, Fitch, and the OECD treat as the primary cross-country reference in their published sovereign analysis. On this measure (2026 IMF projection), Canada sits at roughly 112.5% of GDP — third of seven in the G7, between the United Kingdom (~104%) and France (~116%).
Federal-only debt at ~43% is not internationally comparable. IMF net debt places Canada at or near the top of the G7. Gross general government debt places Canada third of seven. The same country, three different rankings — driven by what each measure includes and excludes.
Gross general government debt-to-GDP — the measure used by major rating agencies and the OECD — puts Canada at ~112% in 2026, behind Germany (~65%) and the UK (~104%) and ahead of France (~116%), the US (~121%), Italy (~137%), and Japan (~235%).
From ~105% of GDP in 2024 to ~109% in 2025 to ~112% projected for 2026. The gap to France and the United States has narrowed; the gap to Germany has widened.
The three measures answer different questions. Federal-only debt asks "how much does the central government owe?" — useful for federal-level fiscal capacity but not for cross-country comparison in a decentralised federation. Net debt asks "what is the government's net financial position?" — useful for capturing prefunded social-insurance assets but methodologically asymmetric across the G7. Gross general government debt asks "what is the total stock of consolidated public-sector liabilities?" — the measure with the fewest cross-country asymmetries.