Top 100 Countries by Gold Reserves, 2026
Official gold reserves are the monetary gold holdings reported by central banks and other official institutions. In 2026 this metric matters because reserve managers are still balancing safety, liquidity and geopolitical resilience at a time when sanctions risk, inflation memory and reserve diversification remain live policy issues. This page treats 2026 as the ranking label, but the underlying country data mostly reflect late-2025 reported holdings. That is the right way to frame the topic: not as a gold-price story, and not as a generic foreign-exchange reserves page, but as a separate ranking focused on who holds the largest official gold stock, how concentrated those holdings remain, and how strongly individual countries rely on gold inside the reserve mix.
The top of the ranking is still dominated by legacy holders — above all the United States and the major euro-area economies — but the most dynamic reserve accumulation in recent years has come from countries such as Poland, Kazakhstan, China and Brazil. That combination of legacy stocks plus selective new buying is what defines the gold-reserve story going into 2026.
Core ranking logic follows the public World Gold Council / IMF IFS reserve framework; the full Top 100 HTML table below extends country coverage with the latest public country list of reported gold holdings and keeps all rows visible in source.
Top 10 countries by official gold reserves
Legacy holder; stock broadly unchanged.
Legacy holder; minor technical movement only.
Legacy holder; reserve profile remains gold-heavy.
Large legacy stock with a very high gold ratio.
Large stock, but recent reported movement was lower.
Still adding, but gold remains a small share of total reserves.
High tonnage, but reserve mix is more FX-heavy than Euro-area legacy holders.
Rising strategic weight, still far below the top western holders in tonnes.
Large stock in tonnes, modest share because total reserves are huge.
Smaller than the top nine in tonnes, but still exceptionally gold-intensive.
Table 1. Top 20 countries by official gold reserves
| Rank | Country | Gold reserves | Gold share of reserves |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States | 8,133.5 t | 84.2% |
| 2 | Germany | 3,350.3 t | 84.0% |
| 3 | Italy | 2,451.8 t | 81.3% |
| 4 | France | 2,437 t | 81.8% |
| 5 | Russia | 2,317.2 t | 47.0% |
| 6 | China | 2,307.5 t | 9.6% |
| 7 | Switzerland | 1,039.9 t | 15.2% |
| 8 | India | 880.3 t | 19.4% |
| 9 | Japan | 846 t | 9.7% |
| 10 | Netherlands | 612.5 t | 74.2% |
| 11 | Turkey | 603.1 t | 53.4% |
| 12 | Poland | 550.2 t | 30.1% |
| 13 | Taiwan | 423.9 t | 10.1% |
| 14 | Uzbekistan | 399.1 t | 86.4% |
| 15 | Portugal | 382.7 t | 79.9% |
| 16 | Kazakhstan | 339.9 t | 77.0% |
| 17 | Saudi Arabia | 323.1 t | 10.0% |
| 18 | United Kingdom | 310.3 t | 22.5% |
| 19 | Lebanon | 286.8 t | 82.4% |
| 20 | Spain | 281.6 t | 33.8% |
Upper-rank values reflect the latest March 2026 ranking snapshot for official monetary gold. Shares refer to gold as a percentage of foreign reserves.
Chart 1. Top 20 countries by gold reserves (tonnes)
The bar chart tracks official gold holdings in tonnes. It is a stock measure, not a flow measure, so a large bar does not mean a large annual purchase in 2025.
Methodology
The page label is 2026, but the reserve holdings are not “live 2026” balances. The main framework comes from the World Gold Council’s Gold Reserves by Country page, which states that the data are compiled using IMF International Financial Statistics and other official sources where applicable, with the March 2026 page showing data as of 31 December 2025 for most countries and earlier dates for late reporters. That lag matters because gold reserves are a stock measure reported with delays, not a real-time flow series.
For the ranking itself, the article prioritises official monetary gold held by countries, measured in tonnes. For the reserve-composition view, it also uses gold as a share of foreign reserves. Where country reporting dates differ, the latest available public observation is kept rather than forcing a false same-month comparison. Figures are rounded for readability. In the extended Top 100 table, the change column is defined as the difference versus the previous reported observation in the latest public country list, which is useful for directional reading but should not be confused with a harmonised year-over-year series.
Main limitation: reporting lags and classification differences still matter. Turkey is the clearest example: official gold data can be affected by the treatment of commercial-bank gold and treasury-related adjustments, so cross-country comparisons should stay anchored to the underlying methodological notes, not only to a single rank number.
Insights and conclusions
The global gold-reserve map remains highly concentrated. The top positions are still occupied by the United States, Germany, Italy and France, which reflects historical accumulation rather than current buying alone. That legacy effect matters: gold rankings move slowly at the top because the starting stocks are huge. Even when countries such as China or Poland buy aggressively, they are moving from a much lower base than the post-war western holders.
The second important pattern is that tonnes and reserve share answer different questions. China ranks near the top in tonnage, yet gold is still a relatively modest share of its reserves because its overall FX pool is enormous. By contrast, countries such as Uzbekistan, Portugal or Kazakhstan hold much less gold in absolute terms but rely on it much more heavily inside the reserve mix. That distinction is the main reason a gold-reserves page should not be merged with a generic FX-reserves page: one measures the size of a specific reserve asset, the other the overall reserve war chest.
A third pattern is that post-2022 official demand changed the geography of movement even if it did not completely rewrite the ranking. The big structural buyers have been concentrated outside the old western core. Poland, Kazakhstan, China, Brazil and several Middle Eastern or Asian reserve managers have all contributed to the persistence of strong official demand, even after the extraordinary buying wave of 2022–2024 cooled from peak levels.
What this means for the reader
For readers tracking currency stability, sovereign risk or cross-border capital flows, this ranking is best treated as a reserve-structure signal. A large gold stock can strengthen diversification and confidence, but it does not automatically mean a stronger currency, lower inflation or better macro management. Countries with large gold reserves can still face fiscal stress, external financing pressure or political instability.
The practical use of the ranking is comparative. When a country has a large gold stock but a low gold share, it usually signals a very large total reserve pool. When it has a moderate stock but a very high share, it may indicate either a strategic preference for gold, a smaller FX base, or both. That is why the strongest reading comes from pairing this page with your foreign-exchange reserves page rather than treating the two indicators as substitutes.
Related internal page: Countries by Foreign Exchange Reserves — 2025
FAQ
No. Gold reserves are one component of official reserves. FX reserves usually include foreign currencies, deposits, securities and other reserve assets. Gold is a separate reserve asset, not a synonym for total reserves.
Because the denominator changes. A country may hold a huge amount of gold in tonnes while still having an even larger overall reserve pool, which keeps gold’s percentage share relatively low.
Because IMF IFS and national disclosures are not fully synchronous. Some countries report promptly, while others report with a longer lag, which is why the latest public comparison mixes December 2025 with September 2025 or earlier for late reporters.
Not by itself. Exchange-rate stability depends on the whole policy mix: inflation control, fiscal credibility, external balances, liquid FX buffers and market confidence, not only the quantity of gold in vaults.
Because reserve managers continue to value it as a diversifier, a crisis hedge, a long-term store of value and a reserve asset that is less exposed to the political risks attached to individual currencies.
Because 2026 is the publication and ranking label, while the latest broad comparable country holdings mostly reflect end-2025 reported data. That is standard for reserve rankings with reporting lags.
How the Top 100 gold-reserve holders are distributed in 2026
Once the ranking moves beyond the giant legacy holders, the gold map becomes much more diverse. Europe still dominates the upper half through historical reserve accumulation, but Asia and the Middle East account for much of the incremental buying momentum. The lower half of the Top 100 contains a long tail of countries with modest but still meaningful official stocks, alongside a few economies that now report only token holdings or none at all.
The table below is fully written into the HTML source. Every country row is present in the page without waiting for JavaScript. The controls only sort and filter the existing rows. The value toggle switches between tonnes and each country’s share of the Top 100 total, while the change column shows the difference versus the previous reported observation in the current public country list.
Table 2. Top 100 countries by gold reserves
Holdings are shown in tonnes. The value toggle switches to each country’s share of the Top 100 total. Change is the difference versus the previous reported observation in the current public country list, which is directional rather than a harmonised year-over-year series.
| Rank | Country | Gold reserves | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United StatesAmericas · High · Dec 25 | 8,133 t | ±0 t |
| 2 | GermanyEurope · High · Dec 25 | 3,350 t | ±0 t |
| 3 | ItalyEurope · High · Dec 25 | 2,452 t | ±0 t |
| 4 | FranceEurope · High · Dec 25 | 2,437 t | ±0 t |
| 5 | RussiaEurope · Upper-middle · Dec 25 | 2,327 t | −3 t |
| 6 | ChinaAsia · Upper-middle · Dec 25 | 2,306 t | +2 t |
| 7 | SwitzerlandEurope · High · Dec 25 | 1,040 t | ±0 t |
| 8 | IndiaAsia · Lower-middle · Dec 25 | 880 t | ±0 t |
| 9 | JapanAsia · High · Dec 25 | 846 t | ±0 t |
| 10 | TurkeyMENA · Upper-middle · Dec 25 | 614 t | −27 t |
| 11 | NetherlandsEurope · High · Dec 25 | 612 t | ±0 t |
| 12 | PolandEurope · High · Dec 25 | 550 t | +35 t |
| 13 | TaiwanAsia · High · Sep 25 | 424 t | ±0 t |
| 14 | UzbekistanAsia · Lower-middle · Dec 25 | 390 t | +29 t |
| 15 | PortugalEurope · High · Dec 25 | 383 t | ±0 t |
| 16 | KazakhstanAsia · Upper-middle · Dec 25 | 341 t | +17 t |
| 17 | Saudi ArabiaMENA · High · Sep 25 | 323 t | ±0 t |
| 18 | United KingdomEurope · High · Dec 25 | 310 t | ±0 t |
| 19 | LebanonMENA · Lower-middle · Mar 25 | 287 t | ±0 t |
| 20 | SpainEurope · High · Dec 25 | 282 t | ±0 t |
| 21 | AustriaEurope · High · Sep 25 | 280 t | ±0 t |
| 22 | ThailandAsia · Upper-middle · Dec 25 | 235 t | ±0 t |
| 23 | BelgiumEurope · High · Dec 25 | 227 t | ±0 t |
| 24 | AzerbaijanAsia · Upper-middle · Dec 25 | 200 t | +15 t |
| 25 | SingaporeAsia · High · Dec 25 | 194 t | −11 t |
| 26 | AlgeriaMENA · Upper-middle · Sep 25 | 174 t | ±0 t |
| 27 | BrazilAmericas · Upper-middle · Dec 25 | 172 t | +27 t |
| 28 | IraqMENA · Upper-middle · Sep 25 | 171 t | +6 t |
| 29 | LibyaMENA · Upper-middle · Sep 25 | 147 t | ±0 t |
| 30 | PhilippinesAsia · Lower-middle · Dec 25 | 133 t | +1 t |
| 31 | EgyptMENA · Lower-middle · Dec 25 | 129 t | ±0 t |
| 32 | SwedenEurope · High · Dec 25 | 126 t | ±0 t |
| 33 | South AfricaAfrica · Upper-middle · Dec 25 | 126 t | +1 t |
| 34 | MexicoAmericas · Upper-middle · Dec 25 | 120 t | ±0 t |
| 35 | QatarMENA · High · Dec 25 | 115 t | −1 t |
| 36 | GreeceEurope · High · Dec 25 | 115 t | ±0 t |
| 37 | HungaryEurope · High · Dec 25 | 110 t | ±0 t |
| 38 | South KoreaAsia · High · Dec 25 | 104 t | ±0 t |
| 39 | RomaniaEurope · High · Dec 25 | 104 t | ±0 t |
| 40 | IndonesiaAsia · Upper-middle · Dec 25 | 85.53 t | ±0 t |
| 41 | AustraliaOceania · High · Dec 25 | 79.87 t | ±0 t |
| 42 | KuwaitMENA · High · Sep 25 | 78.98 t | +0.01 t |
| 43 | United Arab EmiratesMENA · High · Sep 25 | 74.26 t | −0.14 t |
| 44 | JordanMENA · Upper-middle · Sep 25 | 73.16 t | +0.33 t |
| 45 | Czech RepublicEurope · High · Dec 25 | 71.61 t | +4.77 t |
| 46 | DenmarkEurope · High · Dec 25 | 66.55 t | ±0 t |
| 47 | PakistanAsia · Lower-middle · Dec 25 | 64.77 t | +0.01 t |
| 48 | ArgentinaAmericas · Upper-middle · Dec 25 | 61.74 t | ±0 t |
| 49 | CambodiaAsia · Lower-middle · Dec 25 | 54.43 t | ±0 t |
| 50 | BelarusEurope · Upper-middle · Dec 25 | 53.86 t | ±0 t |
| 51 | SerbiaEurope · Upper-middle · Dec 25 | 53.08 t | +1.39 t |
| 52 | KyrgyzstanAsia · Lower-middle · Dec 25 | 45.87 t | +5.17 t |
| 53 | FinlandEurope · High · Dec 25 | 43.76 t | ±0 t |
| 54 | BulgariaEurope · High · Dec 25 | 42.93 t | ±0 t |
| 55 | MalaysiaAsia · Upper-middle · Dec 25 | 38.88 t | ±0 t |
| 56 | PeruAmericas · Upper-middle · Dec 25 | 34.67 t | ±0 t |
| 57 | SlovakiaEurope · High · Dec 25 | 31.69 t | ±0 t |
| 58 | UkraineEurope · Lower-middle · Dec 25 | 27.37 t | ±0 t |
| 59 | EcuadorAmericas · Upper-middle · Sep 25 | 26.28 t | ±0 t |
| 60 | BoliviaAmericas · Lower-middle · Mar 25 | 22.5 t | −0.03 t |
| 61 | MoroccoMENA · Lower-middle · Sep 25 | 22.12 t | ±0 t |
| 62 | GhanaAfrica · Lower-middle · Dec 25 | 18.6 t | −18.46 t |
| 63 | BangladeshAsia · Lower-middle · Dec 25 | 14.28 t | ±0 t |
| 64 | CyprusEurope · High · Dec 25 | 13.9 t | ±0 t |
| 65 | GuatemalaAmericas · Upper-middle · Dec 25 | 13.02 t | ±0 t |
| 66 | MauritiusAfrica · Upper-middle · Dec 25 | 12.42 t | ±0 t |
| 67 | IrelandEurope · High · Sep 25 | 12.04 t | ±0 t |
| 68 | ParaguayAmericas · Upper-middle · Sep 25 | 8.19 t | ±0 t |
| 69 | NepalAsia · Lower-middle · Dec 24 | 7.99 t | ±0 t |
| 70 | MongoliaAsia · Upper-middle · Dec 25 | 7.8 t | +0.16 t |
| 71 | North MacedoniaEurope · Upper-middle · Dec 25 | 6.89 t | ±0 t |
| 72 | TunisiaMENA · Lower-middle · Sep 25 | 6.84 t | ±0 t |
| 73 | OmanMENA · High · Mar 25 | 6.73 t | ±0 t |
| 74 | LatviaEurope · High · Dec 25 | 6.66 t | ±0 t |
| 75 | LithuaniaEurope · High · Dec 25 | 5.82 t | ±0 t |
| 76 | ColombiaAmericas · Upper-middle · Dec 25 | 4.68 t | ±0 t |
| 77 | BahrainMENA · High · Sep 25 | 4.67 t | ±0 t |
| 78 | SloveniaEurope · High · Sep 25 | 4.01 t | +0.28 t |
| 79 | MozambiqueAfrica · Low · Jun 25 | 3.94 t | ±0 t |
| 80 | Bosnia and HerzegovinaEurope · Upper-middle · Mar 25 | 3.48 t | ±0 t |
| 81 | AlbaniaEurope · Upper-middle · Sep 25 | 3.42 t | ±0 t |
| 82 | ArubaAmericas · High · Dec 25 | 3.11 t | ±0 t |
| 83 | LuxembourgEurope · High · Dec 25 | 2.24 t | ±0 t |
| 84 | Hong Kong SARAsia · High · Sep 25 | 2.08 t | ±0 t |
| 85 | Trinidad and TobagoAmericas · High · Jun 25 | 2 t | +0.04 t |
| 86 | IcelandEurope · High · Dec 25 | 1.98 t | ±0 t |
| 87 | Papua New GuineaOceania · Lower-middle · Sep 25 | 1.96 t | ±0 t |
| 88 | El SalvadorAmericas · Lower-middle · Dec 25 | 1.81 t | ±0 t |
| 89 | HaitiAmericas · Low · Jun 25 | 1.81 t | ±0 t |
| 90 | SurinameAmericas · Upper-middle · Dec 25 | 1.21 t | ±0 t |
| 91 | HondurasAmericas · Lower-middle · Sep 25 | 0.7 t | ±0 t |
| 92 | Dominican RepublicAmericas · Upper-middle · Sep 25 | 0.57 t | ±0 t |
| 93 | Sri LankaAsia · Lower-middle · Jun 25 | 0.47 t | ±0 t |
| 94 | MaltaEurope · High · Sep 25 | 0.34 t | +0.03 t |
| 95 | ChileAmericas · High · Sep 25 | 0.25 t | ±0 t |
| 96 | EstoniaEurope · High · Sep 25 | 0.25 t | ±0 t |
| 97 | UruguayAmericas · High · Dec 25 | 0.1 t | ±0 t |
| 98 | FijiOceania · Upper-middle · Sep 25 | 0.03 t | ±0 t |
| 99 | KenyaAfrica · Lower-middle · Dec 25 | 0.02 t | ±0 t |
| 100 | CanadaAmericas · High · Dec 25 | 0 t | ±0 t |
Source basis: official country holdings from the latest public reserve tables, cross-checked against the March 2026 World Gold Council / IMF IFS ranking logic for the upper tier. Update window in this page: mostly December 2025, with earlier dates for late reporters.
Figure 2. Gold reserves in tonnes vs gold share of reserves
This scatter plot uses the leading reported holders to show why tonnage and reserve dependence are not the same thing. The upper-right zone is reserved for the exceptional legacy holders. The far-right but lower-share zone captures countries with huge reserve systems in which gold is only one component. The upper-left or middle zone captures countries that are smaller in tonnage but unusually gold-heavy.
Horizontal axis: official gold holdings in tonnes. Vertical axis: gold as a percentage of foreign reserves. The point is interpretation, not forecasting.
What the 2026 gold-reserve hierarchy says about reserve strategy
The country ranking confirms that official gold remains one of the most path-dependent indicators in macroeconomics. The very top of the table is still controlled by legacy holders that accumulated large stocks decades ago, especially the United States and the major euro-area economies. That means the upper ranks move slowly. Even when newer buyers add aggressively, they are climbing from a much smaller base than the long-established reserve powers.
The more interesting movement happens below the top tier. In the middle of the Top 100, reserve managers such as Poland, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Brazil and several Middle Eastern institutions have been far more active than the old western holders. This does not instantly overturn the ranking, but it does change the geography of incremental buying. The 2026 story is therefore not “the leaders changed overnight,” but rather “the direction of official demand remains broader and more multipolar than the legacy stock map.”
The second major takeaway is that tonnes and reserve share answer different questions. A country can rank near the top in absolute gold holdings and still have a relatively low gold share if its total reserve pool is dominated by foreign-exchange assets. China and Japan are the clearest examples. By contrast, countries such as Uzbekistan, Portugal or Kazakhstan hold much less gold in tonnes, yet gold accounts for a much larger share of their reserve mix. That is exactly why a gold-reserves page should not be merged into a generic FX-reserves page: one measures the size of a specific reserve asset, the other the total reserve balance sheet.
There is also an important reporting point. The page label is 2026, but the underlying official holdings mostly reflect late-2025 reported data rather than a live 2026 stock. That is normal for reserve rankings built on IMF IFS timing. The better interpretation is that this page shows the most recent broad cross-country snapshot available in 2026, not a real-time balance sheet for every central bank on the same calendar date.
Policy takeaway: how to read gold reserves without overstating them
Gold is a reserve asset, not a complete macro verdict. A large gold position can improve diversification and political resilience, but it does not automatically mean a stronger currency, safer sovereign debt profile or better inflation performance.
- For large reserve holders, the main question is balance-sheet composition: how much of total reserves sit in gold versus liquid FX assets.
- For mid-tier buyers, persistent additions usually signal a diversification strategy rather than a wholesale replacement of dollar and euro assets.
- For commodity exporters, a high gold share can reflect both strategy and the structure of the wider reserve base.
- For fragile economies, a high gold ratio is not always a sign of strength; sometimes it reflects a smaller stock of liquid foreign-currency reserves.
- For readers comparing countries, the best practice is to pair gold reserves with FX reserves, external debt exposure, inflation pressure and currency volatility.
In other words, official gold should be read as part of a broader reserve-management story. The metric is most useful when it helps explain why two countries with similar total reserves may still look very different in terms of reserve structure, sanctions resilience, liquidity management and political signalling.
There is also a valuation angle. Gold’s share of reserves can rise sharply even when tonnage does not change, because the market value of the gold stock moves faster than the value of some bond or deposit holdings. That is why reserve-share charts and tonnes charts should be read together rather than separately.
Official sources and technical notes
The ranking and notes in this page are built around the public World Gold Council reserve tables and IMF reserve data framework. Links below are the primary reference points for methodology, reporting lags and official-sector context.
-
World Gold Council — Gold Reserves by CountryMain country table for official gold holdings and gold as a share of reserves, updated in March 2026 and compiled using IMF IFS statistics and other official sources where applicable.
https://www.gold.org/goldhub/data/gold-reserves-by-country -
IMF Data Portal — International Financial StatisticsThe IMF data access point for the IFS framework used in reserve reporting and cross-country macro reserve statistics.
https://data.imf.org/ -
World Gold Council — Central Bank Gold Reserves Survey 2025Survey evidence on how reserve managers view gold, including the continued rise in central-bank interest in maintaining or increasing gold allocations.
https://www.gold.org/goldhub/research/central-bank-gold-reserves-survey-2025 -
World Gold Council — Gold Demand Trends, Full Year 2025: Central BanksOfficial-sector context for 2025 buying trends, including country-level changes and the broader direction of central-bank demand.
https://www.gold.org/goldhub/research/gold-demand-trends/gold-demand-trends-full-year-2025/central-banks -
IMF Annual Report 2025 — Appendix I. International ReservesUseful background on the composition of international reserves and the role of gold in the aggregate reserve mix.
https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/ar/2025/pdfs/imf-annual-report-2025-appendices.pdf
Country figures should be treated as the latest broad comparable snapshot available in 2026, not as a same-day live balance-sheet series. Reporting months differ across countries, revisions do occur, and technical adjustments can matter in specific cases.
