Gold holdings

Gold holdings are the quantities of gold held by individuals, private corporations, or public entities as a store of value, an investment vehicle, or perceived as protection against hyperinflation and against financial and/or political upheavals.

During the 19th and early 20th Century eras of the gold standard, national governments undertook an obligation to redeem the national currency for a certain amount of gold.[1] In such times, the nation's central bank used its reserves to meet that obligation, backing some or all of the currency in issue with the metal it held.[2]

The World Gold Council estimates that all the gold ever mined, and that is accounted for, totals 187,200 tonnes, as of 2017[3] but other independent estimates vary by as much as 20%.[4] At a price of US$1,250 per troy ounce, marked on 16 August 2017, one tonne of gold has a value of approximately US$40.2 million. The total value of all gold ever mined, and that is accounted for, would exceed US$7.5 trillion at that valuation, using WGC's 2017 estimates.[lower-alpha 1]

IMF holdings

Since early 2011, the gold holdings of the IMF have been constant at 90.5 million troy ounces (2,814.1 metric tons).[5]

National holdings

The IMF regularly maintains statistics of national assets as reported by various countries.[6] This data is used by the World Gold Council to periodically rank and report the gold holdings of countries and official organizations.

On 17 July 2015, China disclosed its official gold holdings for the first time in six years and announced that increased by about 57 percent, from 1,054 to 1,658 metric tons.[7][8]

The gold listed for each of the countries in the table may not be physically stored in the country listed, as central banks generally do not allow independent audits of their reserves.

Top 50 according to World Gold Council's latest rankings (as of 3 May 2024)[9]
Rank Country/Organization Gold holdings
(in metric tons) 		Gold's share of
forex reserves
1 United States8,133.571.3%
2 Germany3,352.370.6%
—International Monetary Fund2,814.0—[lower-alpha 2]
3 Italy2,451.867.6%
4 France2,436.968.6%
5 Russia2,332.728.1%
6 China2,262.54.6%
7  Switzerland1,040.08.0%
8 Japan846.04.7%
9 India822.18.9%
10 Netherlands612.560.5%
11 Turkey570.3 [lower-alpha 3]100%
— European Central Bank506.533.9%
12 Taiwan422.44.7%
13 Portugal382.673.3%
14 Poland359.912.7%
15 Uzbekistan357.774.3%
16 Saudi Arabia323.14.7%
17 Kazakhstan310.658.4%
18 United Kingdom310.312.6%
19 Lebanon286.854.5%
20 Spain281.619.3%
21 Austria280.062.0%
22 Singapore236.64.5%
23 Thailand234.57.5%
24 Belgium227.438.8%
25 Algeria173.615.1%
26 Venezuela161.283.0%
27 Philippines159.110.2%
28 Libya146.711.2%
29 Iraq129.78.5%
30 Brazil126.52.6%
31 Egypt126.423.6%
32 Sweden125.714.6%
33 South Africa125.414.3%
34 Mexico120.43.9%
35 Greece114.458.0%
36 South Korea104.41.7%
37 Romania103.69.6%
— Bank for International Settlements102.0[lower-alpha 4]—[lower-alpha 2]
38 Qatar102.514.0%
39 Hungary94.513.5%
40 Australia79.910.3%
41 Kuwait79.010.0%
42 Indonesia78.63.6%
43 United Arab Emirates74.52.6%
44 Jordan66.6724.3%
45 Denmark66.54.1%
46 Pakistan64.733.2%
47 Argentina61.716.2%
48 Belarus54.046.1%
49 Finland49.020.3%
50 Cambodia42.514.1%
—World35,938.6[lower-alpha 5]15.2%
—Euro Area (including the ECB)10,771.556.4%
  • Notes
  1. Gold, silver, and other precious metals and gems are weighed by the troy ounce. There would be 24,000 troy ounces to 1 imperial ton of weight. One tonne is equal to approximately 32,150.75 troy ounces.
  2. BIS and IMF balance sheets do not allow this percentage to be calculated.
  3. The figure provided is official sector gold reserves, i.e. the sum of central bank owned gold and Treasury gold holdings. This is equivalent to gross gold reserves less all gold held at the central bank in relation to commercial sector gold policies, such as the Reserve Option Mechanism (ROM), collateral, deposits, and swaps.
  4. Excluding any gold held in connection with swap operations, under which the bank exchanges currencies for physical gold. The bank has an obligation to return this gold at the end of the contract.
  5. World total as calculated by the IMF. This will not equal the total for the countries in the table as ‘World total’ will include data for countries beyond the top 100 and for countries that do not publish their reserves. World total also captures BIS holdings inclusive of swap operations.

Private holdings
[10] [11]
Rank Name Type Gold holdings
(in tonnes)
1ChinaPrivate31,000[12]
2IndiaPrivate30,000[13]
3SPDR Gold SharesETF1,167[14]
4iShares Gold TrustETF523.0[15]
5COMEX Gold TrustETF440.0[11]
6ETF Securities Gold FundsETF306.9[11]
7Xetra Gold ETFETF226.9[16]
8ZKB Physical GoldETF169.4[11]
9Sprott Physical Gold TrustCEF69.3[11]
10SPDR Gold MiniSharesETF66.0[17]
11Central Fund of CanadaCEF52.7[18]
12Julius Baer Physical Gold FundETF49.1[10]
13BullionVaultBailment34.2[19]
14GoldMoneyBailment34.1[20]
15ETFS Physical Swiss Gold SharesETF26.3[11]
16ABSA NewGold Exchange Traded FundETF22.0[11]
17Central GoldTrustCEF21.9[21]
-Total for the above 1764,960

World Holding
(2011)
(Source: United States Geological Survey)[22][23]
Location Gold holdings
(in tonnes)		 Share of total
world gold holdings
Total171,300100%
Jewellery84,30049.2%
Investment (bars, coins)33,00019.26%
Central banks29,50017.2%
Industrial20,80012.14%
Unaccounted3,7002.2%

See also

Notes

    References
    1. Schenk, Catherine (2013). The global gold market and the international monetary system (PDF). Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781137306708. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
    2. "Central Bank Gold Reserves, an historical perspective since 1845", Timothy Green, World Gold Council Study No.23, November 1999
    3. "How much gold has been mined?", World Gold Council
    4. "How much gold is there in the world?", BBC News, 1 April 2013
    5. "Gold in the IMF". International Monetary Fund. Archived from the original on April 22, 2011.
    6. "Data Template on International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity -- Reporting Countries".
    7. "Gold & Foreign Exchange Reserves".
    8. "Major Factors Affecting Gold Prices Fluctuation". FXdailyReport.Com. 2016-07-22. Retrieved 2016-10-28.
    9. "World Official Gold Holdings - International Financial Statistics, 3 May 2024". World Gold Council. 3 May 2024. Retrieved 3 May 2024.
    10. "Holdings of SPDR Gold, iShares Silver". Reuters. 2 July 2015. Archived from the original on August 1, 2015. Retrieved 1 August 2015.
    11. "Holdings of SPDR Gold, iShares Silver rise". Reuters. 29 May 2020. Archived from the original on June 2, 2020.
    12. .
    13. .
    14. "SPDR Gold Shares". SPDR. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
    15. "iShares Gold Trust". iShares. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
    16. "Xetra Gold Holdings". Deutsche Boerse. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
    17. "SPDR Gold MiniShares". SPDR. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
    18. "Central Fund's Net Asset Value". Central Fund of Canada. 31 July 2015. Archived from the original on August 1, 2015. Retrieved 1 August 2015.
    19. "Daily audit - Allocated gold bar lists and bank statements". BullionVault. 31 July 2015. Retrieved 1 August 2015.
    20. "Real-Time Audit". GoldMoney. 31 July 2017. Retrieved 31 July 2017.
    21. "GoldTrust's Net Asset Value". Central GoldTrust. 31 July 2015. Archived from the original on August 1, 2015. Retrieved 1 August 2015.
    22. on page 2 of the pdf file; last paragraph just before the "Production" section on that page
    23. "Two Methods for Estimating the Price of Gold by Mike Hewitt". DollarDaze Economic Commentary Blog - Gold, Oil, Stocks, Investments, Currencies, and the Federal Reserve. Archived from the original on 2012-01-09. Retrieved 2012-01-08.
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