Gold Reserves by Country: Who Holds How Much Gold?

Gold reserves by country show how much gold central banks, governments and international institutions officially hold. For central banks, gold is a reserve without counterparty risk: it is not another state’s debt, it cannot default and it is accepted worldwide. That is why it serves as an emergency reserve for crises, as a safeguard for the bank’s own balance sheet and as a way to diversify foreign reserves alongside the dollar, the euro and government bonds. Since 2022 central banks have been buying on a large scale: according to World Gold Council estimates, purchases exceeded 1,000 tonnes for three years in a row, and in 2025 they came to around 863 tonnes. One thing to bear in mind when reading the table: all tonnages are reported figures. Countries report their holdings to the International Monetary Fund, and the World Gold Council analyses these reports. Some central banks report late, irregularly or not at all. The World Gold Council’s estimates of total central bank demand are therefore well above the sum of reported purchases.