Gold has long been viewed as the ultimate financial asset, and never more so than during times of financial crisis. While we no longer use the ‘gold standard’ to determine the value of currencies, the precious metal is still incredibly useful and held by many central banks because it provides stability as it’s not impacted by political changes or economic shocks, plus it’s a liquid asset which means it can be converted to cash if needed.

But who has the most stashed away? Using data from GoldHub, read on to see the 30 countries that own the most gold as of the end of 2021. All dollar values in US dollars.

Sweden isn't an obvious choice as a major player in the gold market, but this Scandinavian country actually owns 125.72 tonnes of gold bars. It doesn't keep all its stocks on home ground, however. As well as Sweden's central bank – the Riksbank – the country's gold is also reportedly held within the Bank of England, the Bank of Canada, the Federal Reserve Bank in America, and the Swiss National Bank.

In the second quarter of 2021, Brazil added a considerable 53.75 tonnes of gold to its reserves, almost doubling its hoard and pushing Mexico out of the top 30 countries. The purchase was reportedly Banco Central do Brasil’s largest gold acquisition since at least December 2000. The move was unsurprising, as the World Gold Council anticipated that central banks would be net buyers of gold following the precious metal’s stellar performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the third quarter of last year, Brazil followed up this purchase by buying a further 8.54 tonnes, meaning its reserves now outweigh those of South Africa and Sweden for the first time. 

Those looking for a secure place to store their gold often settle on Singapore, because the country hasn't been tarnished by any major corruption scandals, crime is low and so are taxes, and the costs of gold storage are incredibly competitive. The country itself has also got a substantial reserve of gold: 153.74 tonnes of the stuff to be precise, a significant increase of 26.34 tonnes between the second and third quarters of 2021. 

The Philippines is one of Asia's largest gold producers. Although mining is big business here, it's thought that much of the country's gold remains untapped. Desperately poor locals hoping to get lucky and literally strike gold even undertake dangerous dives in mud-filled swamp mines in search of the precious metal. The Philippines has large reserves of gold already, however, with 158.81 tonnes currently under its ownership. That's an increase of 1.8 tonnes since the end of 2021. 

Venezuela was in the top 20 gold owners until a few years ago. But in a bid to reduce its vast debts and fend off economic crisis, it sold off about $1.7 billion (£1.2 billion)-worth of gold in early 2016. In September 2019, it was reported that the country's reserves had fallen to a 75-year low as the government sold off gold to restructure its debt. Venezuela has been trying to sell more of its gold reserves to combat the effects of the pandemic by using the money it raises to buy into the United Nations Development Programme, which will allow it to buy more medical equipment, medicines and food.

However, the Bank of England, which holds around a third of its gold reserves, has refused Venezuela access amid US sanctions against the South American country. In retaliation, Venezuela launched a lawsuit against the bank in May 2020 following its decision not to accept Nicolas Maduro as Venezuela's leader. The case is still ongoing and, as yet, it's unclear who will control the country's reserves. For now, Venezuela's gold stocks remain the same at 161.22 tonnes. 

In 2021 Poland expanded its gold reserves in a bid to protect domestic currency values against the rising dollar, bringing them to their highest level in 35 years at 231.77 tonnes. In November 2019, Bloomberg reported that Poland had transported $5.2 billion (£4bn)-worth of Polish-owned gold bars from the Bank of England, where they had been stored since the Second World War to hide them from the Nazis, to secret vaults back in Poland. 

Poland’s central bank wanted to buy another 100 tonnes of gold – around $5.5 billion (£3.6bn)-worth – over the coming years, Reuters reported in March 2021, following a trend in Eastern European countries looking to reduce their reliance on assets such as the US dollar. However, the latest rankings show that Poland has actually depleted its stocks since last year and currently owns 230.84 tonnes, a decrease of 0.93 tonnes. 

Thailand added more than 90 tonnes of gold to its stockpile in the second quarter of 2021, bringing its total reserves to 244.16 tonnes and shifting the country five places up the gold ownership rankings. Thailand mines its own gold and the Thai people place a high value on the precious metal. In fact, gold jewellery is arguably more popular in southeast Asia as a whole than it is elsewhere in the world. 

There's a big leap between 21st and 20th place with Austria recorded as holding 279.99 tonnes of gold, over 35 tonnes more than Thailand. Much of its stock was held in the Bank of England, but in 2015 it was announced that the Austrian National Bank wanted to repatriate much of this back to Vienna so that at least half of Austrian gold is held at home.

Spain holds just over a tonne more gold than Austria. Gold mining has been going on in Spain since pre-Christian times and it was the Romans who turned it into a flourishing industry. There is now a renewed interest in Spanish gold with a lot of prospector activity being carried out in the hope of being able to strike it lucky. It's unlikely to impact heavily on the country's gold reserves, however; Spain's stocks haven't changed as of March 2022. 

It may not be the most stable country in the world, but this small Middle Eastern land is rich in gold. Lebanon is currently holding on to 286.83 tonnes of gold, giving it the third largest reserves in the Middle East. Although Lebanon has a mining industry, gold is not one of its abundant natural resources and it principally mines limestone, iron ore, and salt.

Many countries choose to store their gold in the heavily-fortified Bank of England vault, the second largest in the world after the vault at the New York Federal Reserve. The UK has its fair share of gold reserves too, with 310.29 tonnes of the precious metal currently held in its name. Despite there being no active gold mines in the UK, it's long been seen as the centre of the wholesale gold market and a major importer and exporter of the metal.

However, this is a much-reduced reserve after the nation's Chancellor at the time (and later Prime Minister) Gordon Brown made the controversial decision to sell more than half of the UK's gold reserves – 401 tonnes – for $3.5 billion (£2.2bn) in 1999. The price of gold skyrocketed in the years that followed and many believe it was the wrong time to sell.

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A mineral-rich country, Uzbekistan has a wealth of resources including oil, natural gas, gold, silver and uranium. As well as being a top producer of the precious metal, the country reportedly planned to continue increasing its gold reserves to 430 tonnes by 2024, a further increase of more than 70 tonnes.

However, in July 2020 the country became the world's largest seller of gold as it pinned its hopes of economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic on it. In fact, in the first eight months of 2020 Uzbekistan sold $5.8 billion (£4bn) of gold, nearly a billion dollars more than the $4.9 billion (£3.5bn) it sold throughout the whole of 2019. The country then changed tack at the beginning of 2021 and was one of four nations leading a gold purchasing drive last February, despite the continuing trend for central banks to sell up during the COVID-19 crisis. In the third quarter of 2021, Uzbekistan added 25.5 tonnes to its reserves, the second largest increase of any country in the world. But the country didn't stop there and sold off a whopping 21.46 tonnes in the run-up to March 2022. 

Portugal has 382.57 tonnes of gold. However, the country has battled economic instability and there have been calls for it to sell off some of its gold reserves to reduce its national debt, which currently stands at over €303 billion ($336bn/£255bn). Regulations make this easier said than done though and, for now, Portugal is holding on to its precious asset.

Turkey's gold reserves fell by more than 200 tonnes between 2017 and 2019, from 495.6 tonnes to 293.6 tonnes. The country then went on a buying spree due to concerns over its relationship with the US and a year of crisis for the nation's currency, the lira, and ended up with 716.3 tonnes of gold in the last quarter of 2020. Since then it's led the global drive to sell off gold during the pandemic.

In the second quarter of 2021, Turkey had 407.6 tonnes of the precious metal and later sold off another 13.9 tonnes. By the end of last year the country had 392.80 tonnes of gold left, less than 55% of its total reserves at the end of 2020. It's since increased its stocks by 1.4 tonnes, meaning it currently owns 394.20 tonnes of gold. 

Kazakhstan's National Bank increased its gold reserves by more than 100 tonnes in the past three years, in a bid to reduce the country's reliance on the US dollar and neutralise currency risks. And in the months before the COVID-19 pandemic hit it bought up more gold. Even at the beginning of 2021, as the country was very much still feeling the effects of the crisis, Kazakhstan increased its gold ownership.

The land-locked country, which is currently working to develop its gold mining industry through foreign investors and low government regulation, added an impressive 11.27 tonnes of gold to its stocks in the third quarter of 2021, bringing its total reserves to 402.38 tonnes. 

Despite being a small island off the coast of China, Taiwan is sitting on 423.63 tonnes of gold. In 2019 the country dipped into its gold reserves to produce coins to commemorate the upcoming inauguration of President Tsai Ing-wen as the chairperson of the Democratic Progressive Party. The central bank made a total of 10,000 gold coins and 50,000 silver coins to mark the occasion, which took place in May 2020.

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The Netherlands takes the number 10 spot in the gold reserves rankings, with 612.45 tonnes of gold in its stocks. In October 2019, it was reported that the Dutch central bank would be transporting 14,000 gold bars, weighing a total of 175 tonnes, to a temporary location in Haarlem, before permanently moving them to the DNB Cash Centre in Zeist. A similar convoy mission took place in October 2020 when armed guards, helicopters and forklifts came together to move 200 tonnes of gold from Amsterdam’s Dutch central bank to the same vault in Haarlem. The meticulously guarded shipment contained gold worth around €10 billion ($12bn/£8.7bn), along with bills to the value of around €4.5 billion ($5.4bn/£4bn). 

There's a jump of over 140 tonnes from the Netherlands' stock of gold to that of India, which itself has increased by around 150 tonnes in the past few years. The country also has high household reserves, particularly in the form of gold jewellery. Although India does have a small gold mining industry, it can't support the national demand and most of its yellow metal is bought in from abroad. India is another country that bought gold at the beginning of 2021 as most nations continued to sell amid the COVID-19 crisis. Its ever-expanding reserve of gold currently weighs in at 754.10 tonnes, an increase of 50.39 tonnes over the last year or so and 10.27 tonnes since the end of 2021 alone. 

The gold stocks move into four figures now with Switzerland holding 1,040 tonnes. The majority of this gold is held on home soil, but some of it is stored at the Bank of England and Bank of Canada. In 2014 there was a referendum to decide on whether the Swiss National Bank (SNB) should expand its gold reserves from 7% to 20%. The status quo prevailed and 78% of voters were against the SNB increasing its share.

Russia can’t get enough of this precious metal and has spent around $40 billion (£28.7bn) over the past five years to boost its gold reserves, allowing it to overtake China in the rankings and reduce its reliance on the US dollar. Plus, it has a billion-dollar gold mining industry, which means this metal-rich country doesn’t need to rely on imports either. Its gold reserves increased by 6.22 tonnes during the third quarter of 2021, the fifth largest increase in the world. 

However, Russia's invasion of Ukraine – and subsequent condemnation by much of the world – has rendered its impressive gold stocks almost useless. Sanctions have pushed the Russian Federation out of the global gold trade, with London banning all bars from Russian refineries and the US Senate prohibiting citizens from making any transactions that involve Russian gold. As the ruble crashes in value, it's thought the country could return to a gold standard system to stabilise its economy. But whether this will be enough to prevent economic collapse in Russia, while continuing to fund Putin's military, remains to be seen.

France has stockpiled 2,436.47 tonnes of gold, much of which was reportedly acquired during the 1950s and 1960s. It's increased its stocks by a modest 0.12 tonnes since the second quarter of 2021. Although some of its reserves are held abroad, most of this gold is said to be held in vaults under the Banque de France in Paris. A few hundred tonnes of French gold were sold off in the early part of this century, but stocks have remained stable since about 2009.

Italy holds just slightly more gold than France with 2,451.84 tonnes. Unlike most countries, where the gold reserves are owned by the state and managed by their central banks, Italy’s gold is actually owned by the Banca d’Italia and held in vaults in Rome and at the Swiss National Bank, the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, and the Bank of England. The Italian government made headlines in February 2019 when it said that it would "not sell a gram" of the gold reserves to fill budget holes. True to its word, the country's stocks have remained the same.

Germany is the second largest hoarder of gold in the world with 3,359.09 tonnes of it, a tiny decrease from 3,359.12 tonnes earlier in 2021. Concern over its gold falling under Soviet control during the Cold War led to the stockpile being spread around the world. It was thought to be divided between the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, the Bank of England, and the Banque de France. Between 2013 and 2017, at least half of this bounty was bought back home to Frankfurt.

Unsurprisingly perhaps, the USA is the country with the most gold in the world, boasting a staggering 8,133.47 tonnes of gold bullion. That's nearly as much as Germany, Italy, and Russia combined! The majority of this gold is thought to be held in depositories across America, such as the United States Bullion Depository, better known around the globe as Fort Knox. Total American reserves are worth over $712 billion (£542bn). 

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