Foreign ownership of U.S. Treasury securities reached $9.2 trillion as of December 2025, representing 31% of total publicly held federal debt — a figure that has grown in dollar terms even as it has declined as a share of a rapidly expanding total. The Congressional Research Service released updated data on April 22, 2026, drawing on Federal Reserve flow-of-funds accounts and Treasury International Capital system figures through March 2026. The headline number is large but the trend it conceals is more telling.

Japan is the largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasury securities by a margin that is not particularly close. Its $1.185 trillion position as of December 2025 exceeds the United Kingdom’s second-place $866 billion by more than $300 billion, and outstrips China’s $683.5 billion by nearly half a trillion. Japan accounts for 12.8% of all foreign investment in U.S. publicly held federal debt. It has held the top position for years, interrupted only briefly during the period when China’s accumulation was at its peak.

Private investors now account for 58.1% of all foreign holdings of U.S. federal debt, with official sources — foreign governments and central banks — holding the remaining 41.9%. As of December 2025, that translates to $5.4 trillion in private foreign hands and $3.9 trillion under official control. The split reflects a structural shift in who finances American sovereign borrowing from abroad, with implications that are qualitatively different depending on which cohort is asked to absorb future supply.

Belgium holds $477.3 billion in U.S. Treasury securities as of December 2025, ranking it fourth among all foreign holders of U.S. federal debt, ahead of Canada, France, and Taiwan. Belgium’s GDP is roughly $600 billion. The idea that a country with an economy that size has organically accumulated nearly half a trillion dollars in U.S. sovereign paper, driven by domestic institutional demand, does not survive casual scrutiny. Belgium’s appearance near the top of the foreign holdings table is not evidence of Belgian appetite for Treasuries.