Earnings and Dividends Per Share (Details) $ / shares in Units, shares in Thousands, $ in Millions		3 Months Ended
	May 16, 2017	Mar. 31, 2018 USD ($) $ / shares shares	Mar. 31, 2017 USD ($) $ / shares shares
Earnings and Dividends Per Share
Net earnings attributable to Ball Corporation | $		$ 125	$ 68
Basic weighted average common shares | shares		350,215	350,048
Effect of dilutive securities (in shares) | shares		7,337	7,886
Weighted average shares applicable to diluted earnings per share | shares		357,552	357,934
Basic (in dollars per share) | $ / shares		$ 0.36	$ 0.19
Diluted (in dollars per share) | $ / shares		$ 0.35	$ 0.19
Stock split ratio	2
Number of outstanding options excluded from computation of diluted earnings per share | shares		5,000	4,000
Dividends declared (in dollars per share) | $ / shares		$ 0.10	$ 0.065
Dividends paid (in dollars per share) | $ / shares		$ 0.10	$ 0.065