1. Index Mundi – the admirable site with a South American perspective – that aims to be an improved version of…
2. … the CIA World Factbook
3. UNdata – the statistics gathered by the United Nations
4. World Bank statistics
5. The statistics available from the Bank of England

In the US, this pie chart shows the ownership of the National Debt – albeit in 1998 – on Ed Hall’s excellent site brillig.com Double clicks enlarge the images.
In the UK, these 9 series date from 1976 until 2003 and represent public debt in different hands and currencies.
DPAG015: public corporations – in sterling
DPAG006: public corporations – in sterling and foreign currencies
DPAG002: Central government holding debt of Local government,
DPAG001: Local goverment – in sterling and foreign currency
DPAF001: non-public sector (market) holdings of sterling and foreign currency
DPAG009: public sector – sterling and all foreign currency
DPAF007: Central government – sterling and all foreign currency
DPAG004: General government – sterling and foreign currency
DPAG019: total sterling and all foreign currency of public sector debt (National Debt).

Another 9 UK series indicate:
DPAG003: non-public sector (market) sterling investments in national savings ordinary account (in sterling millions)
DPAG016: local government sterling holdings of debt of public corporations (in sterling millions)
DPAG018: public corporations’ sterling holdings of debt of local government (in sterling millions)
DPAF005: Central Government sterling holdings of coin issued by Central Government (in sterling millions)
DPAF009: Central Government sterling funds held in courts by other than public sector (in sterling millions)
DPAG012: total sterling and all foreign currency other Central Government debt (in sterling millions)
DPAF004: non-public sector (market) sterling accrued interest and indexing on national savings (in sterling millions)
DPAG017: public corporations’ sterling holdings of debt of Central Government (in sterling millions)

All data descriptions are taken verbatim from the Bank of England. Hence we can see the “national debt players” at work:

• Central government
• Local government
• Public corporations
• the non-public sector in the form of the “market”

And we see the tools they are using:

• national currencies
• coin (notes and coins)
• bank accounts
• funds held in court.

The “instruments” are:

• Government stock
• Treasury bills
• National Savings securities
• Certificates of tax deposit
• Ways and Means advances
• IMF interest-free notes
• Temporary deposit facility
• Other

NEXT: Who Benefits from Interest Payments?