Explore the World's Gold Reserves by Country

Gold does not pay interest, it cannot be printed, and it just sits in a vault. Yet the world's central banks hold more of it than at any time in decades. And where that gold sits — and whose flag is on the vault door — has become a serious question again. This guide to gold reserves by country ranks the 50 largest holders. It explains why so much national gold is stored in other countries, and it looks at who actually moved gold in 2026.

The figures are the latest reported by the World Gold Council (WGC), as of 8 November 2026. They are compiled from IMF data and checked against central bank publications. The ranking is drawn from the World Gold Council's Goldhub data on gold reserves by country: https:// www.gold.org/goldhub/data/gold-reserves-by-country. Most holdings are as reported for August–September 2026; a few countries report late, and those are flagged under the table. Our companion piece tells the story of why central banks have been buying so much gold in recent years — the link is at the end. This article is about something different: who holds what, and where it is kept.

The short answer: In the ranking of gold reserves by country, the United States holds the most gold in the world: 8,133.5 tonnes. That is roughly 2.4 times as much as second-placed

Germany (3,349.3 tonnes), and more than the next two countries combined. Italy (2,451.8

tonnes) and France (2,437.0 tonnes) follow. China is fifth (2,409.6 tonnes) and closing fast. The US has been the largest reported holder for the whole period since 1950.

The 50 Countries With the Largest Gold Reserves

Together, the 50 holders in this ranking of gold reserves by country account for more than

32,000 tonnes of gold. One note before the table: the International Monetary Fund holds

2,814.0 tonnes, which would rank third. The European Central Bank holds about 506.5 tonnes. They are institutions, not countries, so they are not counted in the ranking.

Rank Country Gold reserves (tonnes) Gold as % of total reserves

1 United States 8,133.5 81.8%

Rank Country Gold reserves (tonnes) Gold as % of total reserves

Rank	Country	Gold (tonnes)	Share of reserves
2	Germany	3,349.3	82.7%
3	Italy	2,451.8	78.9%
4	France	2,437.0	80.6%
5	China	2,409.6	8.5%
6	Russia	2,264.0	44.3%
7	Switzerland	1,039.9	13.7%
8	India	880.5	15.6%
9	Japan	846.0	9.6%
10	Poland	672.9	30.7%
11	Netherlands	612.4	72.7%
12	Türkiye	532.1	52.9%
13	Uzbekistan	446.0	89.9%
14	Taiwan	424.0	—
15	Portugal	382.7	81.0%
16	Kazakhstan	382.0	78.9%
17	Saudi Arabia	323.1	8.9%
18	United Kingdom	310.3	21.2%
19	Lebanon	286.8	81.1%
20	Spain	281.6	32.2%
21	Austria	280.1	74.0%
22	Thailand	234.5	12.1%
23	Belgium	227.4	57.8%
24	Singapore	203.4	6.5%
25	Azerbaijan	178.1	31.8%
26	Iraq	175.6	28.6%
27	Algeria	173.6	37.6%
28	Brazil	172.4	6.8%
29	Venezuela	161.2	92.5%
30	Libya	146.7	20.6%
31	Philippines	133.5	18.6%
32	Egypt	129.9	35.0%
33	Sweden	125.7	24.4%

Rank Country Gold reserves (tonnes) Gold as % of total reserves

Rank	Country	Gold (tonnes)	Share of reserves
34	South Africa	125.5	24.1%
35	Mexico	120.0	6.6%
36	Qatar	115.3	27.5%
37	Greece	114.7	69.5%
38	Hungary	110.0	21.8%
39	South Korea	104.5	3.5%
40	Romania	103.6	16.8%
41	Indonesia	87.1	8.7%
42	Czechia	85.8	6.8%
43	Australia	79.9	16.0%
44	Kuwait	79.0	25.2%
45	United Arab Emirates	75.0	4.2%
46	Jordan	74.7	37.3%
47	Denmark	66.6	7.7%
48	Pakistan	64.8	34.0%
49	Argentina	61.7	18.7%
50	Cambodia	57.3	33.1%

Source: World Gold Council data compiled from IMF International Financial Statistics, latest available on 8 November 2026; most holdings as reported for August–September 2026.

Late reporters: Lebanon's figure is from March 2025 and Venezuela's from June 2018 — the last figures those countries reported. Taiwan is included because the World Gold Council reports its holdings; some rankings leave it out. Just outside the top 50: Serbia, with 55.0 tonnes.

The biggest recent changes in the table have come from buying. China added gold for the 23rd month in a row in September 2026. Poland — up to 672.9 tonnes — was the largest reported buyer of 2026 to the end of September, adding about 123 tonnes.

The Top 10, Country by Country

United States (8,133.5 t): The stock has barely moved in more than four decades. It is stored at Fort Knox, West Point and Denver, plus about 418 tonnes at the New York Fed. Germany (3,349.3 t): About half sits in Frankfurt; the rest is split between New York (1,236 t) and London (404 t).

Italy (2,451.8 t): Unchanged since 1999, and spread across Rome, New York, Switzerland and London.

France (2,437.0 t): Now held almost entirely in the Banque de France's Paris vault, after a quiet reshuffle finished in January 2026 (more below).

• • • • China (2,409.6 t): Reported holdings have risen every month since November 2024 — yet gold is still under 9% of China's total reserves.

Russia (2,264 t): The latest reported figure, from September 2026. Russia's reporting has been intermittent since 2022. WGC data show it sold modest amounts during 2026. So treat this row as a dated snapshot, not a live count.

Switzerland (1,039.9 t): The only other country above 1,000 tonnes.

India (880.5 t): Growing steadily — and, as we will see, increasingly stored at home. Japan (846.0 t): Gold is under 10% of Japan's huge reserve pile, most of which is foreign currency.

Poland (672.9 t): The climber of the table — the biggest reported buyer of 2026 so far.

Why Do Countries Store Gold in Other Countries?

Here is the surprise hidden inside the table: a large share of that gold is not in the country that owns it. It sits in a handful of foreign vaults, and has done for decades. These are the three addresses that matter most.

The New York Fed: the world's biggest gold vault

Under Manhattan, 80 feet below street level, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York holds about 507,000 gold bars. They weigh roughly 6,331 tonnes (2024 figures) — the largest known store of monetary gold on Earth. None of it belongs to the Fed itself. It is held for the US government, foreign governments, other central banks and international organisations, each owner's gold in its own compartment. Much of it arrived during and after the Second World War, when countries wanted their gold somewhere safe. The Fed does not publish a current count of its foreign gold customers. An older figure of about 60 holders is still widely quoted. The Fed itself corrected that figure in 2010, to 36 foreign central banks with gold actually in the vault. Storage is free; the Fed charges only a handling fee when bars enter, leave or change owner.

The Bank of England: gold kept where the market is

The Bank of England is the world's second-largest gold keeper, with around 400,000 bars in nine underground vaults. Most of them belong to other central banks, not to Britain, whose own reserve is about 310 tonnes. The reason, in the Bank's own words, is that London is the global centre for gold trading. Gold kept there can change owner by a simple book entry, without a single bar being moved. That makes it quick and cheap to sell, swap or lend gold exactly where the buyers are.

The BIS in Switzerland

The Bank for International Settlements in Basel — often called the central bank for central banks — also holds gold for central banks. It holds it in earmarked accounts, and it runs gold trading and deposit services for them. India's central bank, for example, reports part of its gold as kept in safe custody with the Bank of England and the BIS.

• • • • • • Why do countries leave their gold abroad at all? Four reasons come up again and again: Safety in wartime: gold shipped to New York and London during and after the Second World War was never shipped back.

Liquidity: gold stored at a trading centre can be sold or swapped within hours. Gold in a home vault cannot.

History: under the Bretton Woods system, gold and dollars moved through New York and

London, and balances simply accumulated there. Germany, for instance, received much of its gold at those trading hubs in the 1950s and 1960s.

Transport: moving hundreds of tonnes is expensive, risky and slow — so gold tends to stay where it was delivered.

Bringing Gold Home: The Repatriation Wave

Germany set the modern example, 2013–2017

In 2013 Germany announced it would bring home 674 tonnes — 374 tonnes from Paris and 300 tonnes from New York. The aim was for half of its gold to be stored in Frankfurt. The transfers finished in August 2017, about three years ahead of schedule. The final split was:

Frankfurt 1,710 tonnes (50.6%), New York 1,236 tonnes (36.6%) and London 432 tonnes

(12.8%). And there it has stayed: Germany's New York holding was still exactly 1,236 tonnes at the end of 2025.

India is quietly doing the same

India has been moving gold home from overseas custody since 2023. About 100 tonnes came home in the year to March 2024, widely reported at the time as moved from the Bank of England. The Reserve Bank of India's own figures group London and the BIS together. That combined overseas holding has fallen from 437 tonnes in March 2023 to 290 tonnes by September 2025. It fell again, to about 198 tonnes, by March 2026. Over the same period, the share of India's gold stored inside India rose from 38% to 77%.

The gold that cannot move: Venezuela

Not every owner can get its gold back. Venezuela has roughly 31 tonnes at the Bank of England, worth about US$1.95 billion in the court documents. It has been inaccessible since

1. Two rival boards claimed the right to speak for Venezuela's central bank after Britain recognised Juan Guaidó as interim president. UK courts ruled on the recognition question in 2021 and 2022. But as of early 2026 the gold was still in London, its fate unresolved. It is the clearest modern reminder that gold stored abroad is subject to the law and politics of the place where it sits.

So Which Country Is Shifting Gold Away From the USA in 2026?

Search this question and you will find dramatic videos claiming Germany is pulling its 1,236 tonnes out of New York. As of November 2026, that has not happened. But the honest answer is not 'nobody'. Two countries really did reduce the gold they keep in US custody in 2026. And neither story is the one going viral.

• • • •

The Netherlands: the clearest 2026 move — to London, not home

On 2 September 2026, the Dutch central bank (DNB) announced a move of about 86 tonnes of gold. Between March and August 2026, it had moved that gold out of its combined holdings in the United States and Canada, to London. Most of it was never shipped at all. About 59 tonnes were sold in New York and replaced with standard, internationally tradable bars bought in London. A smaller amount moved physically. London's share of Dutch gold rose from 18.1% to 32.1%; New York's share fell from 31.3% to 18.5%. The bank's stated reason was practical, not political: 'improving the liquidity and tradability' of the reserves as part of crisis preparedness. Gold in London, it said, can be used most readily in a crisis. Notably, DNB did not bring the gold home: London now holds a bigger share of Dutch gold than the Netherlands itself does.

France: a quiet exit from New York, for technical reasons

France completed a similar operation in January 2026. The Banque de France sold the last 129 tonnes it kept at the New York Fed — about 5% of its 2,437 tonnes. It bought an equivalent amount of new bars in Europe. Not one bar crossed the Atlantic. The official reason was housekeeping. The New York bars were older bars that did not meet the modern London Good Delivery standard of 99.99% purity. The bank has been upgrading its stock since 2005. Governor François Villeroy de Galhau said plainly that keeping the new bars in Paris was 'not politically motivated'. France now holds virtually all of its gold in its Paris vault, La Souterraine. It also booked a gain of about EUR 11 billion on the swap in 2025.

Germany and Italy: a loud debate, but no move

In Germany, the argument has been running since early 2025. Emanuel Mönch is a former head of research at the Bundesbank. In January 2026 he argued that storing so much gold in the US 'seems risky' in the current geopolitical situation. The Taxpayers Association of Europe has lobbied Berlin and Rome to repatriate, or at least audit, their gold. Green Party finance spokesperson Katharina Beck backed relocation. And in March 2026 the AfD brought a motion to the Bundestag demanding that all German gold be brought home. On the other side, Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel has repeated that he has 'no doubt' the gold is safe at the New York Fed, most recently in May 2026. Chancellor Friedrich Merz's government says a withdrawal is 'not currently under consideration'. Germany's storage split at the end of 2025 was exactly what it was in 2017. Italy has had a parallel debate about the 1,061.5 tonnes it keeps in New York (43% of its total). But its December 2025 budget law was about who owns the gold — it declared the reserves belong to the Italian people — not about where it sits. Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti denied any plan to move it. No Italian gold has moved. The wider trend is real but slower than the headlines. In the World Gold Council's 2026 central bank survey, the Bank of England was the most-used foreign vault, named by 57% of respondents. The New York Fed was named by 14% — down from 17% in 2025. About one in ten central banks said they had diversified their overseas storage locations in the previous year. The WGC's own summary is the calmest sentence on the subject. What is happening, it says, is a 'diversification of custody rather than a uniform move towards domestic storage'.

The Long View: Gold Reserves From 1950 to 2026

In 1950, the picture was not so much a ranking as a monopoly. Under the Bretton Woods system, the US dollar was convertible into gold at $35 an ounce. The United States held over 20,000 tonnes — roughly eight times as much as the next holder, Britain. Sources differ slightly on the exact peak. World Gold Council data put it at 20,663 tonnes in 1952. US Treasury- based histories put it a little higher, at about 21,900 tonnes in 1949. The difference comes down to what exactly is counted. The direction of travel is not disputed. As dollars flowed out of the US and gold followed them, American holdings fell below 10,000 tonnes in 1968. Dollar convertibility ended in 1971. By the early 1980s the stock had settled at 261.5 million ounces — 8,133.5 tonnes. There it has remained, essentially untouched, for more than forty years. No other country has overtaken the United States at any point in the period. The world's largest reported gold reserve has been American from 1950 to today. What changed is the cast below it. Europe's rebuilt wealth put Germany, Italy and France in the next three places. And in the 2020s, a renewed wave of central bank buying has been reshuffling the rest of the table.

Frequently Asked Questions

The 50 countries with the largest gold reserves in the world?

They are ranked in the table above. The top five are the United States (8,133.5 tonnes), Germany (3,349.3), Italy (2,451.8), France (2,437.0) and China (2,409.6). Together, the top 50 hold more than 32,000 tonnes, on the latest World Gold Council figures available in November 2026.

Top 10 countries with most gold reserves?

United States 8,133.5 t; 2) Germany 3,349.3 t; 3) Italy 2,451.8 t; 4) France 2,437.0 t; 5) China 2,409.6 t. Then come 6) Russia 2,264 t; 7) Switzerland 1,039.9 t; 8) India 880.5 t;

1. Japan 846.0 t; 10) Poland 672.9 t. These are the latest reported figures, from autumn 2026.

Which country has the most gold? | 1950–2026

The United States — for the entire period. US holdings peaked at over 20,000 tonnes around the turn of the 1950s. WGC data say 20,663 tonnes in 1952; Treasury-based histories say about 21,900 tonnes in 1949. The stock has stood at 8,133.5 tonnes since the early 1980s. No other country's reported holdings have passed them at any point in this period.

Which country holds the most gold in the world?

The United States, with 8,133.5 tonnes — about 2.4 times Germany's 3,349.3 tonnes. One

footnote: the IMF holds 2,814.0 tonnes, which would rank third, but it is an international institution, not a country.

Top 50 countries by gold reserves — global ranking 2026

The full 2026 ranking is the table in this article. It is built from World Gold Council data compiled from the IMF, latest available November 2026. Most holdings are as reported for 1.

August–September 2026. The top of the table — the US, Germany, Italy, France and China — has been stable through 2026. The movement has come lower down, led by Poland's buying.

A look at the countries holding the largest official gold reserves

Official reserves are dominated by a small club: the top 10 holders own about three-quarters of all the gold in the top 50. The list is still headed by the countries that rebuilt their reserves after the Second World War: the United States, Germany, Italy and France. They are now being caught, slowly, by China, India and Poland.

Largest gold reserves by country 2025

At the end of 2025 the leaders were the same five. They were the United States (8,133.5 tonnes), Germany (3,350.3 tonnes), Italy (2,451.8), France (2,437.0) and China (about 2,306 tonnes, per China's official figures). The order has not changed during 2026 — China and Poland have simply added to their piles.

The Bottom Line

In the ranking of gold reserves by country, the United States still holds the world's largest gold reserve by a wide margin. Most national gold still sits where history left it — in New York, London and a handful of other vaults. But custody is quietly becoming a decision again. In 2026 the Netherlands and France both reduced the gold they keep in US custody, for practical reasons, they insist. India keeps bringing its gold home. And even Germany's famously patient central bank now has to answer public questions about its 1,236 tonnes in New York. The bars move slowly. The questions around them are getting louder.

Read next: Why Countries Are Buying More Gold — https://fundmil.com/blog/why- countries-are-buying-more-gold Sources: World Gold Council (Goldhub central bank reserves data; Gold Demand Trends Q3 2026; Central Bank Gold Reserves Survey 2026); IMF International Financial Statistics; Deutsche Bundesbank; Reserve Bank of India; Banque de France; De Nederlandsche Bank; Bank of England; Federal Reserve Bank of New York; UK Supreme Court; Reuters.

This article is for general education only and is not financial, legal, or tax advice.