Convert billions to trillions and back when comparing national budgets, debt, GDP or the largest company valuations.
1 trillion = 1,000 billion
A trillion has twelve zeros (10¹²) and a billion has nine, so a trillion is a thousand billions. Divide billions by 1,000 to get trillions: 2,500 billion is 2.5 trillion. Multiply trillions by 1,000 to get billions: 0.4 trillion is 400 billion.
| Billion | Trillion |
|---|---|
| 1 billion | 0.001 |
| 10 billion | 0.01 |
| 100 billion | 0.1 |
| 250 billion | 0.25 |
| 500 billion | 0.5 |
| 750 billion | 0.75 |
| 999 billion | 0.999 |
| 1,000 billion | 1 |
| 1,500 billion | 1.5 |
| 2,500 billion | 2.5 |
| 10,000 billion | 10 |
| 30,000 billion | 30 |
One source gives a country's public debt as $35,000 billion. Another gives its annual GDP as $28.5 trillion. What is the debt-to-GDP ratio? These are illustrative figures.
Step 1: Put both in trillions
Step 2: Divide debt by GDP
Debt is 122.8% of GDP. Dividing 35,000 by 28.5 without converting first would give 1,228, a ratio that's off by a factor of 1,000.
Each step up multiplies by a thousand, which is hard to picture. Counted in seconds, the jumps become clearer:
| Amount | Seconds | Lasts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 million seconds | 1,000,000 | 11.6 days |
| 1 billion seconds | 1,000,000,000 | 31.7 years |
| 1 trillion seconds | 1,000,000,000,000 | about 31,700 years |
A billion seconds is a long career. A trillion seconds goes back further than the end of the last ice age.
| Written as | Where you see it |
|---|---|
| T, tn | Most news outlets and financial data sites ($1.2T, $1.2tn) |
| trn | Some publications, such as The Economist |
| Lakh crore | Indian budgets and GDP figures: ₹1 lakh crore = ₹1 trillion |
1,000. A trillion is a thousand billion, or a million million.
One million. A trillion is a million millions: 1,000,000 × 1,000,000.
A quadrillion (10¹⁵, a thousand trillion), then a quintillion (10¹⁸). They're rare outside science and computing.
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