Earnings and Dividends Per Share (Details) $ / shares in Units, shares in Thousands, $ in Millions			3 Months Ended						9 Months Ended
		May 16, 2017	Sep. 30, 2017 USD ($) $ / shares shares	Jun. 30, 2017 $ / shares	Mar. 31, 2017 $ / shares	Sep. 30, 2016 USD ($) $ / shares shares	Jun. 30, 2016 $ / shares	Mar. 31, 2016 $ / shares	Sep. 30, 2017 USD ($) $ / shares shares	Sep. 30, 2016 USD ($) $ / shares shares
Earnings Per Share
Net earnings attributable to Ball Corporation | $			$ 48			$ 31			$ 215	$ 210
Basic weighted average common shares | shares	[1]		350,327			349,128			350,481	305,756
Effect of dilutive securities (in shares) | shares			8,229			6,276			8,011	6,420
Weighted average shares applicable to diluted earnings per share | shares	[1]		358,556			355,404			358,492	312,176
Basic (in dollars per share) | $ / shares	[1]		$ 0.14			$ 0.09			$ 0.61	$ 0.69
Diluted (in dollars per share) | $ / shares	[1]		$ 0.13			$ 0.09			$ 0.60	$ 0.67
Stock split ratio		2
Number of outstanding options excluded from computation of diluted earnings per share | shares			3,000			2,000			5,000	4,000
Dividends declared (in dollars per share) | $ / shares			$ 0.10	$ 0.10	$ 0.065	$ 0.065	$ 0.065	$ 0.065
Dividends paid (in dollars per share) | $ / shares			$ 0.10	$ 0.10		$ 0.065	$ 0.065	$ 0.065

[1] Amounts in 2016 have been retrospectively adjusted for the two-for-one stock split that was effective on May 16, 2017.