One of the topics central to the holiday season is the tendency of consumers to rack up debt.

Rather than offer advice about avoiding debt, or how to eliminate the debt that you may have already incurred, this article focuses on the debt incurred by governments across the globe and how they compare to each other, and the individual consumer, on a relative basis.

Ever wonder how the U.S. national debt compares to other countries?

According to estimates provided by the International Monetary Fund, governments across the globe have accumulated $63 trillion in total debt. At the top of the list is the United States which makes up about one-third of that amount at $20 trillion.

Add in the next four countries in terms of debt load (Japan, China, Italy and France), and you’ve got $41.6 trillion in debt, or 66 percent, of the worldwide governmental debt.

To keep things in perspective, let’s compare the ratio of debt to a country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

The GDP represents the total dollar value of all goods and services produced (think of it as the size of the economy) and is one of the primary indicators used to gauge the health of a county’s economy.

In the U.S., our $20 trillion of governmental debt represents about 107 percent of our GDP. Second to the U.S. is Japan at $11.8 trillion representing 18.8 percent of worldwide governmental debt. Yet in Japan, that 18.8 percent is 239 percent of their GDP — the highest in the world.

Second to Japan is Greece. While Greece’s debt of $353 billion sounds small in comparison, its debt represents 181.6 percent of Greece’s GDP.

The top five countries for Debt-to-GDP ratios rank as follows: Japan at 239 percent, Greece at 182 percent, Lebanon at 149 percent, Italy at 133 percent and Portugal at 130 percent.

This helps clarify the ability of each government to shoulder the debt it has created while keeping in mind that each will have to accept the eventual consequences of such debt accumulation.

When the number is broken down per capita, the U.S. national debt is $42,504 per citizen and we rank fifth in the world in terms of debt to population ratio. In Japan, that debt per person is $85,694 followed by Ireland at $67,148, Singapore at $56,113 and Belgium at $44,203.

Let’s use similar measures to compare household debt to the debt of countries. Since earnings/income measure our individual level of productivity, much like a country’s GDP, how does your ratio of income-to-debt compare?

If your income is $80,000 a year, and your cumulative debt (balance of mortgage, vehicle loans, credit cards, etc.) exceed $85,600, your ratio is worse than the U.S. government. In fact, cumulative debt of $191,200 puts you in the same category (ratio) as Japan.

If your household consists of four people, at an earnings level of $80,000, your overall debt needs to be less than $170,016 to fair better than the U.S. debt load on our citizenry, and a load of $342,776 puts you right up there with Japan’s load on its citizenry.

One important difference to keep in mind is that, unlike households and their goods, government debt need never be paid off. It can be rolled over by replacing current bonds with new bonds. Governments cannot be foreclosed or repossessed.

I hope your ratios compare favorably, but if not, maybe this is a good reminder to rein in your debt.

Happy holidays to all you consumers. Wishing you good health and good fortune.

Wendy Bennett is a senior financial adviser in Butler.STATISTICS SOURCE: Visual Capitalist Oct. 27 United Nations of Debt