How to Read the Treasury's Monthly Statement of the Public Debt — Debt Held by the Public, Intragovernmental Holdings and the Debt Limit
Treasury debt statement, September 30, 2026: total public debt outstanding $40.17 trillion, debt subject to limit $39.98 trillion against a $41.10 trillion limit; next statement expected November 5.
Key figures (Monthly Statement of the Public Debt, September 30, 2026)
As of 26 October 2026 (KST); most recently published statement: the Monthly Statement of the Public Debt of the United States for September 30, 2026, from the Treasury's Bureau of the Fiscal Service. The dataset page shows "Last Updated 10/06/2026" and "New Data Expected 11/05/2026", and says: "Data is published on the fourth business day of each month, detailing the debt as of the end of the previous month." Primary source: https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/static-data/published-reports/mspd-entire/MonthlyStatementPublicDebt_Entire_202609.pdf[1][2]
| Indicator (U.S. Treasury securities outstanding, millions of dollars) | Previous (August 31, 2026) | Current (September 30, 2026) | Change vs previous (published) | Change vs year ago (September 30, 2025) | Evidence type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total public debt outstanding | 40,175,641 | 40,171,825 | -3,816 | +2,534,272 (+6.7%) from 37,637,553 (published fiscal-year change; percent is this page's calculation) | levels on September 30, 2026: Treasury MSPD (Table I; year-ago from Table IV); end-of-August levels and monthly and fiscal-year changes: Treasury Monthly Treasury Statement, Table 6 |
| Debt held by the public | 32,414,988 (MTS) | 32,425,013 (MSPD level; differs from the MTS level of 32,425,012 by 1 million) | +10,024 (MTS published change, based on the MTS level) | +2,147,246 from 30,277,766 (MTS fiscal-year change) | levels on September 30, 2026: Treasury MSPD (Table I; year-ago from Table IV); end-of-August levels and monthly and fiscal-year changes: Treasury Monthly Treasury Statement, Table 6 |
| Intragovernmental holdings | 7,760,652 | 7,746,813 | -13,840 (MTS published monthly change; difference of displayed balances is -13,839) | +387,026 from 7,359,787 (MTS fiscal-year change) | levels on September 30, 2026: Treasury MSPD (Table I; year-ago from Table IV); end-of-August levels and monthly and fiscal-year changes: Treasury Monthly Treasury Statement, Table 6 |
Comparison basis: all amounts are in millions of dollars. The September 30 levels come from the MSPD; this statement does not show the end-of-August levels, so they and the published monthly and fiscal-year changes are taken from Table 6 of the final Monthly Treasury Statement, published by the same bureau. Debt held by the public differs by 1 million between the two reports (32,425,013 in the MSPD and 32,425,012 in the MTS); the dataset notes say: "Dollar values are rounded in millions to cohere with other data in the dataset." Figures in the text are rounded only where stated. The MSPD, its dataset page and the MTS are all Treasury publications and count as one source.[1][2][3]
In three lines
1. The MSPD provides summary and detail on outstanding Treasury securities at month-end and splits the total into debt held by the public and intragovernmental holdings.
2. As published for September 30, 2026, total public debt outstanding was 40,171,825 million dollars (about $40.17 trillion), and debt subject to the statutory limit 39,979,128 million against a limit of 41,103,996 million.
3. The statement for October 31, 2026 is expected on November 5, 2026, the fourth business day.[1][2]
What the statement covers (in the Treasury's words)
"The U.S. Treasury Monthly Statement of the Public Debt (MSPD) dataset details the Treasury's outstanding debts and the statutory debt limit."[2]
Two holders. "Intragovernmental Holdings - Intragovernmental Holdings are Government Account Series securities held by Government trust funds, revolving funds, and special funds; and Federal Financing Bank securities." "A small amount of marketable securities are held by government accounts." In Table I, intragovernmental holdings of 7,746,813 million dollars consist of 20,482 million in marketable securities and 7,726,331 million in Government Account Series securities.[1]
The limit. "Statutory Debt Limit - The maximum amount of money the Government is allowed to borrow without receiving additional authority from Congress."[1]
Status of the numbers. "The outstanding balances in this statement are based upon daily cash activity reports from Federal Reserve Banks and Bureau Offices and are subject to audit and subsequent adjustments."[1]
Reading in pairs
Total outstanding vs debt subject to limit. Table II subtracts other debt (474 million dollars), unamortized discount (188,632 million) and Federal Financing Bank securities (3,591 million) from total public debt outstanding of 40,171,825 million; the result is the published 39,979,128 million subject to limit, exactly (this page's check of the values printed in Table II, including the published balance of 1,124,867 million).[1]
Components vs totals. Debt held by the public (32,425,013) plus intragovernmental holdings (7,746,813) comes to 40,171,826 million, one more than the published total of 40,171,825; the limit (41,103,996) minus debt subject to limit (39,979,128) is 1,124,868 million against a published balance of 1,124,867 million (this page's calculations). The dataset notes explain that values are rounded in millions.[1][2]
Marketable vs nonmarketable. Marketable securities totalled 31,834,878 million dollars and nonmarketable 8,336,947 million. By security type the marketable rows add exactly to the total, but the holder columns (31,814,397 held by the public plus 20,482 intragovernmental) come to 31,834,879, one more, a rounding difference (this page's calculation). "Total Marketable consists of short-term debt (1 year and less) of $7,118,145 million, long-term debt (greater than 1 year) of $24,716,672 million and matured debt of $62 million." Bills were about 22.4% of marketable debt (this page's calculation; denominator: total marketable).[1]
MSPD vs other debt datasets. "Debt issued by the Federal Financing Bank is included in the intragovernmental holdings and total public debt outstanding on the MSPD, but not in the Schedules of Federal Debt because it is not debt managed by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service."[2]
Verified facts
Each fact is labelled with its evidence typeEach fact in this section carries its evidence type — either cross-checked against independent sources, or confirmed from a single authoritative record.
Total U.S. public debt outstanding was 40,171,825 million dollars on September 30, 2026, of which 32,425,013 million was debt held by the public and 7,746,813 million intragovernmental holdings, according to the Monthly Statement of the Public Debt.[1] 1 source · authoritative record
Debt subject to the statutory limit was 39,979,128 million dollars on September 30, 2026, against a statutory debt limit of 41,103,996 million, leaving a published balance of 1,124,867 million.[1] 1 source · authoritative record
A year earlier, on September 30, 2025, total public debt outstanding was 37,637,553 million dollars, including 30,277,766 million held by the public.[1] 1 source · authoritative record
In September 2026 total Treasury securities outstanding fell by 3,816 million dollars, while debt held by the public rose by 10,024 million, according to Table 6 of the Monthly Treasury Statement.[3] 1 source · authoritative record
The Treasury's dataset page lists new MSPD data as expected on November 5, 2026.[2] 1 source · authoritative record
Statements and readings
Not counted as facts — each item shows what kind of statement it isFrom here on: statements not counted as facts — single-source reports, the issuing body’s own statements, and this page’s own readings, each labeled.
Debt held by the public plus intragovernmental holdings is 40,171,826 million dollars against the published total of 40,171,825 million, and the statutory limit minus debt subject to limit is 1,124,868 million against the published balance of 1,124,867 million, gaps of 1 million from rounding in millions.[1] This page’s own calculation or reading · This page's calculation from MSPD Tables I and II
Total public debt outstanding was 6.7% higher on September 30, 2026 than a year earlier (40,171,825 against 37,637,553 million dollars).[1] This page’s own calculation or reading · This page's calculation from MSPD Tables I and IV
Timeline
What this page could not establish
These are questions this page tried to answer and could not. The gaps are left open rather than filled with a guess.- When will debt subject to limit reach the statutory limit?
- Why did intragovernmental holdings fall in September 2026?
- Model
- claude-opus-5
- Time
- 10/26/2026, 05:07
- Body characters
- 5,854
- Sources
- 3 sources adopted
- Model
- ChatGPT (checked sources on the web)
- Time
- 10/26/2026, 05:12
- Verdict
- Revision required
Show revision history (3)
| 10/26/2026, 09:00 | First authored (claude-opus-5) | Created |
| 10/26/2026 | First version. Read in full the Treasury's 23-page Monthly Statement of the Public Debt for September 30, 2026 (Tables I to V, every row, footnotes and the overview of terms) and the MSPD dataset page with its notes and known limitations, and used Table 6 of the final Monthly Treasury Statement for end-of-August levels and published changes; quotations are complete sentences matched against the source text. | Updated |
| 10/26/2026 | Revised after review: the debt-held-by-the-public row separates the MSPD level from the MTS published changes and states the 1 million difference; the intragovernmental change is labelled as the MTS published change with the -13,839 difference of displayed balances; the cause of the gap is limited to possible rounding; the 1 million difference between the marketable total and the holder columns is noted; Table II values are identified as printed; and the next statement is described as expected on November 5. | Updated |
Frequently asked
How much U.S. Treasury debt (total public debt outstanding) was there on September 30, 2026?
40,171,825 million dollars, or about $40.17 trillion, in the Monthly Statement of the Public Debt for September 30, 2026 (the most recently published statement as of 26 October 2026); the next statement is expected November 5, 2026.[1][2]
How much U.S. Treasury debt is held by the public rather than by government accounts?
32,425,013 million dollars on September 30, 2026, with 7,746,813 million in intragovernmental holdings, of which 7,726,331 million were Government Account Series securities and 20,482 million marketable securities (Table I).[1]
How close was U.S. Treasury debt to the statutory debt limit on September 30, 2026?
Debt subject to limit was 39,979,128 million dollars against a limit of 41,103,996 million, a published balance of 1,124,867 million; debt subject to limit excludes unamortized discount, Federal Financing Bank securities and certain other debt.[1]
Why do the MSPD and the Monthly Treasury Statement show slightly different debt held by the public for September 30, 2026?
The MSPD shows 32,425,013 million dollars and the MTS 32,425,012 million; the 1 million gap may reflect rounding, since the Treasury's dataset notes say MSPD values are rounded in millions.[1][2][3]
Official links
Sources
- [1] Monthly Statement of the Public Debt of the United States, September 30, 2026 (PDF) primary
- [2] U.S. Treasury Monthly Statement of the Public Debt (MSPD) dataset: introduction and notes & known limitations primary
- [3] Final Monthly Treasury Statement for Fiscal Year 2026 Through September 30, 2026 (PDF), Table 6 primary