[OC] The North-South Divide: Government Debt-to-GDP Ratios in the European Union
Posted by Technical_Log5715
![[OC] The North-South Divide: Government Debt-to-GDP Ratios in the European Union](https://www.byteseu.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/s63uecoaf3fg1-1536x838.png "[OC] The North-South Divide: Government Debt-to-GDP Ratios in the European Union")
[OC] The North-South Divide: Government Debt-to-GDP Ratios in the European Union
Posted by Technical_Log5715
13 Comments
Source: Data retrieved from Eurostat (Q3 2024/2025 reports) via eudebtmap.com.
Tools: Python (Geopandas, Matplotlib) for mapping and visualization.
Methodology: I visualized the latest available debt-to-GDP percentages for EU member states. The color scale highlights the disparity between high-debt economies (>90%, shown in Red) and low-debt economies (<60%, shown in Green).
Key Observations:
* Greece remains the highest at ~147%, followed closely by Italy (136%) and France (116%).
* Estonia maintains the lowest debt ratio in the union at just 23%.
* There is a visible geographic correlation, with Southern European nations generally carrying significantly higher public debt burdens than their Northern and Eastern counterparts.
Why is Finland so high compared to its neighbours?
For comparison, the US’ dept to gdp ratio is 125.5%: https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/government-debt-to-gdp
It’s not really clear what “Critical” means in this plot.
Is there any basis for those “debt levels”? To me the cut-off points are too random and Italy/Greece are more red than Spain/France which isnt explained by the legend.
Easy fix would just be a color gradient. depending on highest/lowest %. 61% vs 57% having different colors while 57% and 23% having the same doesnt add to readability.
edit: what are the numbers at the bottom (46%, 60%) referring to?
Today you can see r/PORTUGALCYKABLYAT with an exception: A positive trend of <100% compared to other souther nations?
The data are interesting.
The “healthy” versus “critical” labels are arbitrary editorializing, and should be omitted.
Why north south and not iron curtain divide?
All of the easter block countries, super pious to the neoliberal ideology post soviet dissolution.
With that, you have literally 4 outliers, one of which is a tax haven
Ireland’s GDP is not a realistic reflection of its product. There is a different figure used called GNI that is better to use for comparison to other countries. GNI is about half the GDP value.
Our debt to GNI is about 67% – so yellow on the map.
Yet another visualization that uses arbitrary categories for a continuum of values.
If higher than 90% is critical, what would Japan be ranked at?
Ireland and the Netherlands grab money through taxes that should be tax revenue for other countries.
That shouldn’t happen, it’s bad for everyone else.
What’s going on with Austria?
We’re first! Suck it Italy.