Which Countries Hold the Most Gold?
Central banks and finance ministries collectively hold roughly 36,500 tonnes of gold, about 17 percent of all the gold ever mined. At the current London price near $4,400 per ounce that stock is worth a little over $5 trillion. The holdings are concentrated: the top ten holders own about 70 percent of official gold, and the United States alone holds more than 8,100 tonnes, close to a quarter of the global total.
The World Gold Council (WGC) publishes the reference ranking, compiled from IMF International Financial Statistics and direct central bank disclosures. The table below uses the WGC data released on 3 September 2026. “Share of reserves” is gold’s share of total foreign reserves at market value, which is why the percentages are far higher than they were when gold traded at $2,000.
Top 20 Central Bank Gold Holders
| Rank | Country | Gold reserves (tonnes) | Share of reserves |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States | 8,133.4 | 81.4% |
| 2 | Germany | 3,350.3 | 84.0% |
| 3 | Italy | 2,451.8 | 80.6% |
| 4 | France | 2,437.0 | 81.8% |
| 5 | China | 2,346.4 | 8.0% |
| 6 | Russia | 2,282.0 | 40.6% |
| 7 | Switzerland | 1,039.9 | 12.3% |
| 8 | India | 880.5 | 16.7% |
| 9 | Japan | 845.9 | 8.5% |
| 10 | Poland | 632.4 | 27.8% |
| 11 | Netherlands | 612.5 | 74.2% |
| 12 | Turkey | 530.6 | 56.3% |
| 13 | Uzbekistan | 431.7 | 87.4% |
| 14 | Portugal | 382.7 | 79.9% |
| 15 | Kazakhstan | 368.3 | 76.9% |
| 16 | Saudi Arabia | 323.1 | 10.0% |
| 17 | United Kingdom | 310.3 | 18.6% |
| 18 | Lebanon | 286.8 | 82.4% |
| 19 | Spain | 281.6 | 33.8% |
| 20 | Austria | 280.0 | 71.3% |
Source: World Gold Council, official gold holdings as of 3 September 2026. The International Monetary Fund (2,814 tonnes), the European Central Bank (508 tonnes) and Taiwan (424 tonnes) are excluded from the country ranking.
Notes on the largest holders
United States (8,133 t). Held at Fort Knox, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, West Point and Denver. The U.S. accumulated most of it during and after the Second World War, when Allied nations paid for war materials in gold and the Bretton Woods system fixed the dollar to gold at $35 an ounce. It has not bought or sold gold in meaningful quantity since the 1970s.
Germany (3,350 t). The Bundesbank repatriated about 674 tonnes from New York and Paris between 2013 and 2017. Roughly half is now in Frankfurt, the rest at the Bank of England and the New York Fed. Germany was a marginal net seller (1 tonne) in 2025, the only large European holder to sell at all.
Italy (2,452 t) and France (2,437 t). Both are legacy positions from the gold standard era and both are essentially unchanged since the last Central Bank Gold Agreement sales ended. Italian politicians periodically float selling gold to fund spending; the Banca d’Italia has never done so.
China (2,346 t reported). The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) reports purchases in delayed batches and paused disclosure entirely between 2009 and 2015, then announced 604 tonnes in one update. It added 27 tonnes to reported reserves in 2025 and kept buying monthly into 2026. Many analysts believe actual holdings are well above the reported figure, because the State Administration of Foreign Exchange and state banks also hold gold that never appears in PBoC data. Gold is still only 8 percent of China’s reserves, the lowest share among the top ten, which is the main reason the market expects Chinese buying to continue for years.
Russia (2,282 t). The Bank of Russia bought roughly 1,900 tonnes between 2006 and 2020, then stopped adding once its dollar and euro reserves were frozen in 2022 and gold became its main liquid reserve asset. It was a small net seller (6 tonnes) in 2025.
India (880 t). The Reserve Bank of India has added about 320 tonnes since 2017, including a single 200-tonne purchase from the IMF in 2009. It has also moved a large share of its gold from the Bank of England to domestic vaults.
Poland (632 t). The fastest riser in the table. Narodowy Bank Polski was the world’s largest official buyer in 2025 (102 tonnes) and has more than doubled its reserves since 2018. Governor Adam Glapinski has said publicly that the bank wants gold at 30 percent of reserves; at 27.8 percent it is nearly there.
Turkey (531 t). Turkey’s figure moves around because its central bank also holds gold deposited by commercial banks under reserve requirements and has sold into currency crises. On a net basis it bought 27 tonnes in 2025.
United Kingdom (310 t). The Treasury sold about 395 tonnes between 1999 and 2002 at an average of roughly $275 an ounce, the sale known as “Brown’s Bottom”. At today’s price the gold sold would be worth about $56 billion.
How Much Gold Central Banks Buy Each Year
| Year | Net official purchases (tonnes) | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 to 2021 (average) | 473 | Steady accumulation led by Russia and China |
| 2022 | 1,082 | Record year; Russian reserves frozen in February |
| 2023 | 1,037 | Second consecutive year above 1,000 t |
| 2024 | 1,092 | New record |
| 2025 | 863 | Down 21% as gold rose 60% in price; Q4 alone was 230 t |
Source: World Gold Council, Gold Demand Trends (full year 2025). Figures are revised as late reporters file.
Even after the 2025 slowdown, central banks absorbed about 24 percent of annual mine production (roughly 3,600 tonnes). Before 2010 they were net sellers. The swing from selling 400 to 500 tonnes a year in the early 2000s to buying 900 to 1,100 tonnes a year is a change of about 1,500 tonnes in the annual supply-demand balance, and it is the single largest structural shift in the gold market of the past two decades.
The WGC notes that the 2025 slowdown was price-sensitive rather than a change of heart: purchases dipped while gold ran from $2,600 to above $4,000, then jumped again in the fourth quarter. Its 2025 central bank survey found 95 percent of reserve managers expected global official holdings to rise over the following year, and a record 43 percent planned to increase their own.
Who Is Buying Now
The 2025 buying was broad rather than concentrated:
- Poland (102 t), the largest buyer for the second year running.
- Kazakhstan (57 t) and Uzbekistan, both of which buy domestically mined gold.
- Brazil (43 t), a new entrant that had not bought since 2021.
- Azerbaijan’s State Oil Fund (38 t), a sovereign fund rather than a central bank.
- Turkey (27 t), China (27 t) and the Czech Republic (20 t), where the central bank has a stated plan to reach 100 tonnes.
The net sellers were small and situational: Singapore (15 tonnes), Russia (6 tonnes), Germany and Jordan (1 tonne each).
Why Central Banks Are Buying
Sanctions risk
When Western governments froze roughly $300 billion of Russian central bank reserves in February 2022, every reserve manager learned that dollar and euro assets held abroad can be immobilised. Gold in a domestic vault cannot. The 2022 record year began within weeks of that decision, and the countries buying most heavily since then are mostly outside the Western alliance system or wary of dependence on it.
Reserve diversification
The dollar’s share of allocated foreign exchange reserves has fallen from about 72 percent in 2000 to under 60 percent, according to IMF data. The rebalancing is not into any single rival currency. It is into a basket that includes the euro, renminbi, yen and, increasingly, gold, which is the only reserve asset that is nobody’s liability.
Inflation and sovereign debt
Reserve managers who watched the 2021 to 2023 inflation surge erode the real value of their bond holdings have renewed appreciation for an asset that cannot be printed. Global government debt is near $100 trillion and the debt-to-GDP ratios of the U.S. (around 125 percent) and Japan (over 250 percent) are at or near record highs.
Portfolio arithmetic
Emerging-market central banks still hold gold at 5 to 15 percent of reserves, against 70 to 85 percent for the U.S. and the large European holders. WGC and academic research suggests a 10 to 15 percent allocation improves the risk-adjusted return of a reserve portfolio. China at 8 percent, Japan at 8.5 percent, India at 17 percent and Saudi Arabia at 10 percent all have room to add.
Geopolitical hedging
Central bank buying rises in periods of conflict. The Russia-Ukraine war, U.S.-China rivalry and Middle East instability have all coincided with the current buying wave.
The Repatriation Trend
Alongside buying, central banks are bringing gold home. For most of the twentieth century it made sense to store reserves at the New York Fed, the Bank of England and the Banque de France, where gold could be settled between countries without moving. After 2022 the same location risk that applies to dollar deposits applies to foreign-vaulted gold. Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Hungary, Poland and India have all moved metal to domestic vaults. Repatriation does not change the totals in the table above, but it shows how reserve managers now think about counterparty risk.
Historical Context: From Sellers to Buyers
1990s to 2009. European central banks sold heavily under the Central Bank Gold Agreements, which capped combined sales at 400 to 500 tonnes a year. Switzerland sold about 1,550 tonnes, the UK 395 tonnes, and France and the Netherlands hundreds more. These sales held the gold price down through the late 1990s and, in hindsight, transferred gold from developed-market central banks to the emerging-market banks that later bought it back at several times the price.
2010 to 2021. Net buying resumed, led by Russia, China, Kazakhstan and Turkey, at an average of 473 tonnes a year.
2022 onward. The regime change: three consecutive years above 1,000 tonnes, then 863 tonnes in 2025, with the buyer base broadening every year.
What Central Bank Buying Means for the Gold Price
Central banks do not trade gold. They buy for reserve diversification, hold for decades and rarely sell, so their purchases remove metal from the market more or less permanently. That changes the market in three ways.
A demand floor. Absorbing a quarter of mine supply every year limits how far the price can fall before official buyers step in. The pullbacks of late 2022, mid-2023 and the first half of 2026 were all met with renewed central bank purchases.
A price-sensitive bid, not a price-insensitive one. The 2025 data settles an old argument: central banks slowed down when gold rose 60 percent in a year and sped up when it consolidated. They are buyers of dips, not chasers of rallies.
Validation. When the most conservative institutional investors in the world are raising their gold allocations, the “barbarous relic” argument loses force with private investors too.
The gold price history shows that every sustained bull market in gold has coincided with a shift in official sector behaviour. The current cycle carried gold from about $1,200 in 2018 to the London record of $5,405 per ounce on 29 January 2026, with a correction since; see why gold is falling for the current picture. Several analysts estimate that sustained purchases of 800 to 1,000 tonnes a year add a few hundred dollars per ounce to the equilibrium price compared with a world of zero official demand. The estimate is model-dependent but the direction is not in dispute.
How This Affects the Average Investor
Coin and bar premiums. Central banks buy 400-ounce London Good Delivery bars, not coins, so their buying does not directly change the premium you pay above spot. It does support the spot price that the premium sits on top of.
Downside protection. A patient buyer that absorbs a quarter of supply reduces the depth and duration of corrections. That matters more to a holder of physical gold than any single year’s purchase total.
Optionality. Central banks are not buying gold because they expect the dollar to collapse. They are buying insurance against a gradual erosion of its reserve status. Individuals with their savings concentrated in dollar assets face the same exposure and can take the same insurance. How much is a question for the portfolio research, not for the reserves table.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which country has the most gold reserves?
The United States, with 8,133 tonnes, followed by Germany (3,350), Italy (2,452), France (2,437) and China (2,346 reported). The top four are legacy holdings from the gold standard era; China is the only top-five holder that is still adding.
Why does the U.S. hold so much gold?
Most of it arrived during and after the Second World War, when Allied nations paid for supplies in gold and the Bretton Woods system made the dollar convertible into gold at $35 an ounce. When convertibility ended in 1971 the U.S. kept the metal rather than selling it.
Is China’s real gold reserve higher than it reports?
Almost certainly. The PBoC did not report any change between 2009 and 2015, then disclosed 604 tonnes at once, and other state entities hold gold outside the reported figure. Estimates of undisclosed holdings range from 1,000 to 3,000 tonnes, but they are estimates.
How much gold did central banks buy in 2025?
863 tonnes net, according to the World Gold Council, down 21 percent from the 1,092-tonne record of 2024 but still far above the 2010 to 2021 average of 473 tonnes. Poland was the largest buyer at 102 tonnes.
Could central banks start selling gold again?
Individual banks sell tactically, as Turkey has done to support the lira and Singapore did in 2025. A return to coordinated selling on the 1990s scale would require the geopolitical conditions behind the current buying, sanctions risk, multipolarity and fiscal strain, to reverse. None of the top ten holders has signalled any such intention.
Do central bank purchases affect the price I pay for coins?
Indirectly. Central banks buy large bars, so they do not compete with you for coins, but their purchases support the spot price on which every coin premium is based. Retail premiums are set by mint output and dealer inventory, which you can compare on the premium tracker.
Which central banks might buy next?
Those with large reserves and small gold allocations: Japan (846 tonnes, 8.5 percent of reserves), China (8 percent), Saudi Arabia (10 percent), South Korea, Brazil and Indonesia (all well under 10 percent). Moving any of them to the 10 to 15 percent range that research supports would require hundreds of tonnes.