50 Countries with Highest Gold Assets in the World

Last updated on December 19th, 2023 at 12:43 pm

The world’s largest economy, the United States has the highest gold assets in the world with 8,133 metric tons worth over $526 billion USD in the first quarter of 2022.

In the world ranking, the North American country has more gold reserves than 41 – from the bottom – countries combined whose holdings are 7,832.8 tonnes.

The United States’ dominance obviously shows its futuristic economic policy toward curtailing inflation also ranks as No. 1 in G20 and among countries in America (North and South) in terms of gold assets held by The Federal Reserve.

It is important to note that gold can be found in the 1st 2nd 3rd world countries list, however, the top 5 countries with the highest gold assets in this article belong to the first-world countries.

In fact, the combined gold reserves of Germany, No. 1 in Europe, and Italy is less than what is in the reserve of The Fed. Germany and Italy have the second and third-largest gold reserves respectively.

The country with the highest gold reserves in Asia, China, is on the No. 6 spot on the world ranking, followed by Switzerland which has 1,040 metric tons in the first quarter of 2022.

While France’s 2,436 metric tons place the country in the fourth position and Russia (which is no. 4 in Europe) sits in 5th position on the world stage.

Gold Reserves of Africa on the World Stage

The total gold assets of African country according to the available data shows that the continent have a combined 616.47 metric tons, meaning the US gold asset is 13 times more than what Africa has.

Of the 50 countries under review, only four African countries: Algeria, which has the highest gold reserves on the continent; South Africa, the only member of G20 from Africa; Egypt (No. 3 on the continent); and Libya featured among the top 50 highest gold holders.

Algeria is No. 25 on the world ranking, the former Apartheid country sits in 31st position, while Egypt and Libya are 32 and 34 on the world stage respectively.

 The table below shows the gold reserves by metric tons of 50 countries held by the apex banks of the countries:

Gold Reserves of Gulf Countries

Geographically, out of the eight gulf countries, only six make to the top 50, they are Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The gulf countries have a combined 605.11 metric tons of gold in the first quarter of 2022. Saudi Arabia has the highest gold asset with 323 tonnes

Sources:

• Trading Economics. “Gold Reserves: World”. tradingeconomics.com. Retrieved June 15, 2022
• Gold Hub (June 6, 2022). “Central Bank Holdings”. gold.org. Retrieved June 16, 2022