Data released by the U.S. Treasury Department on Monday showed that as of October 31, the U.S. government owed nearly $5.5 trillion to foreign interests. The amount of U.S. government debt to foreigners has increased by 78% under President Barack Obama. 

According to the Treasury Department, "the U.S. government owed $5,482,200,000,000 to foreign interests" as of October 31, up from "$5,476,200,000 as of Sept. 30."

CNS News discovered that "when President Barack Obama was inaugurated, the U.S. government owed $3,071,700,000,000 to foreign interests. Since then the U.S. government’s debt to foreign interests has increased by $2,410,500,000,000—or 78 percent."

According to the the Treasury Department's numbers, though "entities in Mainland China remained the largest holders of U.S. government debt, with $1,161,500,000,000 in holdings," Mainland Chinese entities have actually "decreased their holding of U.S. government debt by 7.5 percent."

Japanese entities over the past year, have started to accumulate U.S. government debt. CNS News found that Japanese entities have increased their ownership of U.S. debt by nearly 13 percent over the past year, from $1,006,100,000,000 to $1,134,700,000,000.

The Federal Reserve still remains the "world’s largest single owner of U.S. government debt," owning $1,650,297,000,000.