Which data source is used?

Eurostat gov_10q_ggdebt: general government (S.13), gross debt (GD), quarterly (freq=Q), values in million euro (unit=MIO_EUR), EU-27.

How is the live ticker calculated?

We linearly interpolate between the last two quarters and, after the last reference date, extrapolate using a per-second rate derived from their difference.

Methodology • EU Debt Map

Methodology

This page explains the data source, selection filters and the simple interpolation we use to show a live estimate of government debt for the EU-27.

Source: Eurostat quarterly series for general government (S.13).
We store the latest two quarters per country and compute a per-second rate.
Updates roll out when Eurostat publishes new quarters.

Method last updated: 2025-09-04

Official source

We use Eurostat’s quarterly dataset gov_10q_ggdebt (general government gross debt; Maastricht definition).

Open API (gov_10q_ggdebt)Dataset page About the project

Selection filters

freq: Q (quarterly)
sector: S13 (general government)
na_item: GD (gross debt)
unit: MIO_EUR (converted to euro ×1,000,000)
geo: EU-27 countries (Eurostat uses EL for Greece)

Conversion & structure

Values arrive as million euro and are converted to euro. For each country we persist the latest two reference quarters (value + ISO date) and compute a safe, clamped per-second rate.

Why a simple approach?

We optimise for clarity and performance in the MVP. A simple interpolation keeps the UI fast and the method transparent. More advanced modelling (e.g. seasonality or monthly series) can be added later.

Live ticker (simple interpolation)

Interpolation logic (pseudocode)

rate_per_second = (last_value - prev_value) / seconds_between_quarters

current_estimate(now) =
  if now <= last_quarter_end:
      // linear interpolation between prev and last
      prev_value + (last_value - prev_value) * (now - prev_quarter_end) / (last_quarter_end - prev_quarter_end)
  else:
      // extrapolate after last using rate_per_second
      last_value + rate_per_second * (now - last_quarter_end)

Note: extreme €/s outliers are clamped to guard against bad inputs.

Limitations

Quarterly data → intra-quarter changes are interpolated.
Some countries may have only one recent quarter → displays a flat line until the next release.
Minor rounding differences vs. national sources may occur.

Source: Eurostat statistics API — dataset gov_10q_ggdebt.

Transparency

Our goal is to make big numbers understandable at a glance. See also What is Government Debt?, About and Privacy & Cookies.