Foreign investors held $9.25tn of US Treasury securities at the end of July 2026, roughly $1.8tn more than the $7.3tn held in 2023. Japan is the largest single holder at $1.10tn, followed by the United Kingdom at $998bn and China at $618bn. The measure is the US Treasury’s monthly estimate of foreign holdings of Treasury bills, notes and bonds, and it matters because these investors help finance US government borrowing. Who they are, and whether they keep buying, feeds directly into what the US pays to borrow.
At a glance · Top 5
Foreign holdings of US Treasuries, July 2026
- 1Japan$1.10tn
- 2United Kingdom$998bn
- 3China$618bn
- 4Belgium$471bn
- 5Cayman Islands$460bn
Source: US Treasury (TIC)
Three holders, 29% of the total
Japan, the United Kingdom and China together hold $2.72tn, or 29.4% of all foreign-held Treasuries. Japan alone accounts for 11.9%. Holdings on this scale reflect the appeal of the Treasury market to reserve managers and institutional investors: it is the deepest and most liquid bond market in the world, and dollar assets are needed for trade and currency management. Japan’s stake has slipped 4.5% over the past year, from $1.16tn in July 2025.
The bigger story is the United Kingdom. Its holdings have risen 11.4% in a year and stood at $998bn in July, just short of $1tn. In July 2013 the UK held about $150bn, so the figure has grown more than sixfold. That does not mean Britain is lending the US its savings, as the next section explains.
China: down more than half from its peak
China’s holdings peaked at $1.32tn in November 2013, when it held 23% of all foreign-held Treasuries. By July 2026 the figure was $618bn, a fall of 53%, and its share was 6.7%. China was the largest holder until Japan overtook it in mid-2019; the UK has since passed it too, and China now ranks third.
The decline has been gradual rather than a single sell-off: $1.04tn at the end of 2021, $867bn at the end of 2022, $759bn at the end of 2024 and $684bn at the end of 2025. Analysts commonly link it to Beijing diversifying its reserves and to geopolitical caution after the sanctions imposed on Russia’s reserves in 2022, though the Treasury data records what is held, not why. Some Chinese-owned Treasuries are also likely to sit in accounts in third countries, so the true fall may be smaller than the headline suggests.
Where the map misleads: the custody centres
Belgium ($471bn), the Cayman Islands ($460bn), Luxembourg ($442bn) and Ireland ($350bn) rank fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth. Together they hold $1.72tn, or 18.6% of the total, yet none is a plausible owner of that much American debt. Belgium and Luxembourg host large securities custodians, the Caymans host funds, and Ireland hosts fund managers and asset servicing. Treasuries held there belong to investors elsewhere.
The Treasury says as much. Its table is compiled mainly from US custodians and broker-dealers, and where securities sit in overseas custody accounts they may not be attributed to the real owner. The UK figure is widely thought to reflect London’s role as a custody and trading centre in the same way. Read the ranking as a map of where the securities are held, not of who ultimately owns them. Canada ($426bn), France ($348bn) and Taiwan ($296bn) complete the top eleven, alongside Switzerland at $285bn.
Official versus private, and what to watch
Foreign official holders, meaning central banks and governments, held $3.77tn in July, or 40.8% of the total. The remaining 59.2% is held by private investors: banks, funds, insurers and pension schemes. Over the past year official holdings fell from $3.89tn to $3.77tn while the total rose from $9.11tn to $9.25tn, so private holders more than made up the difference.
The measure to watch is not the total but the mix. If the official share keeps falling and private holders take over, US borrowing costs depend more on market appetite and less on the reserve-management decisions of a few central banks. The Treasury publishes the table monthly, with a lag of around two months, so the August 2026 figures will be the next test of whether the UK’s surge and China’s retreat continue.
Source: US Treasury, Treasury International Capital (TIC) system, Table 5: Major Foreign Holders of Treasury Securities, holdings at end of July 2026; historical monthly series from TIC Major Foreign Holders, 2000 to 2025.
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