The numbers are meaningless without context, and in context, the comparison is meaningless. External debt can be huge or tiny.
Luxembourg, population 524,853, has 2.14 trillion in external debt, or >2.7 times China's. While China's per-capita external debt is just $396, to the US's $52,170. Or how about Monaco, population 36,371, external debt, 16.5 billion.
You could add a couple more zeros by denominating the external debt in cents instead of dollars, and comparing it to student debt in dollars, and it would be exactly as useful.
Comments
The numbers are meaningless without context, and in context, the comparison is meaningless. External debt can be huge or tiny.
Luxembourg, population 524,853, has 2.14 trillion in external debt, or >2.7 times China's. While China's per-capita external debt is just $396, to the US's $52,170. Or how about Monaco, population 36,371, external debt, 16.5 billion.
You could add a couple more zeros by denominating the external debt in cents instead of dollars, and comparing it to student debt in dollars, and it would be exactly as useful.