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. 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."Central Bank Gold Reserves, an historical perspective since 1845", Timothy Green, World Gold Council Study No.23, November 1999

The World Gold Council estimates that all the gold ever mined, and that is accounted for, totals 187,200 tonnes, as of 2017"How much gold has been mined?", World Gold Council but other independent estimates vary by as much as 20%."How much gold is there in the world?", BBC News, 1 April 2013 At a price of US$1,250 per troy ounce, marked on 25 December 2025, one tonne of gold has a value of approximately US$144 million. The total value of all gold ever mined, and that is accounted for, would exceed US$27 trillion at that valuation, using WGC's 2017 estimates.

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).

National holdings

The IMF regularly maintains statistics of national assets as reported by various countries. 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.

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 UN countries according to World Gold Council's latest rankings (as of 3 September 2026) Rank Country/Organization Gold holdings(in metric tons) Gold's share offorex reserves 1 8,133.4 81.4% 2 3,350.3 84.0% — International Monetary Fund 2,814.0 — 3 2,451.8 80.6% 4 2,437.0 81.8% 5 2,346.4 8.0% 6 2,283.0 40.6% 7 1,039.9 12.3% 8 880.5 16.7% 9 845.9 8.5% 10 632.4 27.8% 11 612.5 74.2% 12 530.6 56.3% — European Central Bank 508.4 56.2% 13 431.7 87.4% — 423.9 - % 14 382.7 79.9% 15 368.3 76.9% 16 323.1 10.0% 17 310.3 18.6% 18 286.8 82.4% 19 281.6 33.8% 20 280.0 71.3% 21 234.5 10.8% 22 227.4 54.9% 23 200.0 38.2% 24 203.7 5.9% 25 174.6 27.1% 26 173.5 33.6% 27 172.4 6.0% 28 146.6 20.4% 29 133.5 16.4% 30 129.6 32.0% 31 125.7 22.2% 32 125.5 21.9% 33 120.1 5.7% 34 116.1 26.7% 35 114.7 69.5% 36 110.0 20.7% 37 104.4 3.1% 38 103.6 15.6% — Bank for International Settlements 102.0 —

39 87.0 7.7% 40 82.4 5.9% 41 79.8 15.2% 42 78.9 22.2% 43 78.7 37.8% 44 74.5 3.7% 45 66.5 6.9% 46 64.8 29.8% 47 61.7 17.8% 48 57.3 29.4% 49 54.5 20.9% 50 53.8 49.3% — World 36,535.4 29.2% — Euro area (including the ECB) 10,808.3 74.2%

Notes

Private holdings + Rank Name Type Gold holdings(in tonnes) 1 India Private 44,600 2 China Private 31,000 3 SPDR Gold Shares ETF 1,167 4 iShares Gold Trust ETF 523.0 5 COMEX Gold Trust ETF 440.0 6 ETF Securities Gold Funds ETF 306.9 7 Xetra Gold ETF ETF 226.9 8 ZKB Physical Gold ETF 169.4 9 Sprott Physical Gold Trust CEF 69.3 10 SPDR Gold MiniShares ETF 66.0 11 Central Fund of Canada CEF 52.7 12 Julius Baer Physical Gold Fund ETF 49.1 13 BullionVault Bailment 34.2 14 GoldMoney Bailment 34.1 15 ETFS Physical Swiss Gold Shares ETF 26.3 16 ABSA NewGold Exchange Traded Fund ETF 22.0 17 Central GoldTrust CEF 21.9 - Total for the above 17 64,960

World holdings + (2011)(source: United States Geological Survey)on page 2 of the pdf file; last paragraph just before the "Production" section on that page Location Gold holdings(in tonnes) Share of totalworld gold holdings Total 171,300 100% Jewellery 84,300 49.2% Investment (bars, coins) 33,000 19.26% Central banks 29,500 17.2% Industrial 20,800 12.14% Unaccounted 3,700 2.2%

See also List of countries by gold production Gold as an investment Gold mining Gold Panic of 1869 Vaulted gold Gold standard Fort Knox Silver as an investment Gold reserve

References