France’s debt, explainedFrance’s debt
Understand

The questions, in order

  1. 1How much does France owe?
  2. 2Why does France borrow?
  3. 3Where does the money go?
  4. 4How much does the interest cost?
  5. 5Does France meet its targets?
  6. 6How does France compare with its neighbours?
  7. 7Who lends to France?
  8. 8What if…? Simulate the debt’s path
  9. 9And me, what does it change?
DashboardFR

Legal information

Legal notice

This site is a personal, non-commercial project that explains French public debt.

Publisher

The site is published on a non-professional basis by a private individual, who has chosen to remain anonymous.

In accordance with article 6, III, 2 of French law no. 2004-575 of 21 June 2004 (LCEN), the publisher’s identity has been provided to the host below.

Hosting

Cloudflare, Inc. — 101 Townsend Street, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA

The domain name is registered with OVH SAS — 2 rue Kellermann, 59100 Roubaix, France.

Personal data

The site asks for no personal data, has no accounts or forms, and uses no advertising.

Its audience is measured with Cloudflare Web Analytics, a cookie-free tool that does not track individual visitors: it only produces aggregate statistics (page views, country, device type).

The site itself sets no cookies. To deliver and protect the pages, the host processes technical connection data (such as the IP address) under its own privacy policy.

Content and sources

Figures come from official sources (INSEE, Eurostat, ECB, Agence France Trésor, Banque de France), cited on each page and on the Method page. They are provided for information.

The site is neither investment advice nor a voting recommendation. It may contain errors; if you spot one, please report it.

Contact

[email protected]

Sources

  • INSEE — Dette trimestrielle de Maastricht des administrations publiques
  • INSEE — Comptes nationaux annuels base 2014 (dette et déficit de Maastricht)
  • Eurostat — Government deficit/surplus, debt (gov_10dd_edpt1)
  • Eurostat — Population on 1 January (demo_gind)
  • Eurostat — Government revenue, expenditure and main aggregates (gov_10a_main)
  • Eurostat — General government expenditure by function, COFOG (gov_10a_exp)
  • BCE — Taux d’intérêt à long terme (10 ans) des États de la zone euro (IRS)
  • Eurostat — GDP and main components (nama_10_gdp)
  • Eurostat — Net lending/borrowing by sector (nasa_10_nf_tr), household saving rate (nasq_10_ki)
  • Eurostat — Balance of payments (bop_c6_a), net international investment position (tipsii10)
  • INSEE — Coefficient de transformation du franc et de l’euro (pouvoir d’achat depuis 1901)
  • Eurostat — Taux d’intérêt à long terme, critère de Maastricht (irt_lt_mcby_m), et taux de change historiques (ert_h_eur_m, ert_bil_eur_m)
  • INSEE — Dépenses et recettes publiques en % du PIB depuis 1960 (comptes nationaux, base 2020)
  • Eurostat — Dépenses publiques par nature économique (gov_10a_main), par fonction détaillée (gov_10a_exp) et recettes par type d’impôt (gov_10a_taxag)
  • OCDE — Society at a Glance 2024, dépenses sociales publiques brutes et nettes totales (base SOCX, données 2019)
  • Aswath Damodaran (NYU Stern) — Historical returns on stocks, bonds and bills : rendement annuel du S&P 500, dividendes compris
  • Banque mondiale — Commodity Markets “Pink Sheet”, cours mensuel de l’or (CC BY 4.0)
  • Eurostat — Employment, national accounts (nama_10_pe)
  • INSEE — Populations légales des communes (via geo.api.gouv.fr)
  • Natural Earth — Admin 0 countries, 1:10m
  • Agence France Trésor — Dette négociable, programme de financement, notations (mis à jour à la main)
  • Banque de France — Détention des titres de dette (mis à jour à la main)

Method

  • “Maastricht” debt: gross debt of all public administrations (State, Social Security, local governments).
  • “Real time” figure: an estimate that starts from the latest official figure (INSEE, end of June 2026: €3,596 billion) and extends the rise of the past twelve months. The true figure is only known with each quarterly release.
  • Debt per person: a plain division by France’s 69.1 million inhabitants (Eurostat, 1 January), babies included. Nobody has to repay that tomorrow; it is a way to measure its size.
  • Map: each dot stands for 10,000 inhabitants, placed according to each commune’s population (INSEE). Overseas departments are shown as insets, at a different scale.
  • Debt per person in work: a division by the 30.6 million people in employment in France in 2025 (Eurostat, national accounts). Unemployed people are not counted.
DashboardMethod and formulasLegal notice

This site presents official data without taking sides.

Data updated on 15 October 2026.