Gold is the oldest money there is, and it just hit a record. The 2025 average price reached about $3,300 a troy ounce, up roughly 38% in a year, driven by central banks and investors rather than jewellers. Over half of demand is now store-of-value, mining is the most spread-out of any metal, and almost every gram ever mined still exists. Where gold goes, who mines it, and why it is surging. 2025 (USGS) · Compiled June 2026
Gold mined 2025
3,300 t
a tiny annual flow
2025 average price
~$3,300
per troy ounce, a record
Top 5 producers
41%
the most diversified mining
All gold ever mined
~210k t
a cube about 22 m on a side
Where the World's Gold Is Mined (2025)
Colour intensity shows each country's share of gold mine production. Hover a country for its tonnage. This is the most spread-out map in the series: China leads but with only about 12%, and the gold comes from every continent. No one controls it.
Lower shareHigher share
2025 Gold Mine Production by Country (tonnes)
China, Russia and Australia lead, but only just: each is under 12% of world output. After the top handful, a long list of countries each contributes a little, which is why gold mining is so hard for any one nation to control.
Where the Reserves Sit (tonnes)
Australia and Russia hold the largest reserves, then South Africa, the historic heart of gold mining, now past its peak. Total reserves are about 66,000 tonnes, and identified resources are far larger.
All the gold ever mined, made tangible.
Gold is rare and almost indestructible, so it accumulates instead of being used up. That is why so little is mined each year, and why the price is about scarcity and trust rather than tonnage. Verify-and-cite figures in the footer.
~22 m
cube holds all of it
Every gram of gold ever mined, about 210,000 tonnes, would fit in a cube only about 22 metres on a side.
~5.6 m
cube for a whole year
A full year of world gold mining, about 3,300 tonnes, fits in a cube under 6 metres on a side.
~1.6%
added each year
Annual mining adds only about 1.6% to the world's gold stock, so the supply barely grows.
19.3
g/cm³, very dense
Gold is one of the densest metals, about as heavy as tungsten, which is why even small bars feel surprising.
A Stock, Not a Flow (tonnes of gold)
Most metals are mined and consumed. Gold is mined and kept. Set the world's total gold against what central banks hold and what is mined in a year, and the yearly mining is a sliver: the stock dwarfs the flow, which is exactly what a good store of value needs.
Where Gold Goes
Jewellery is still the biggest single use at about 40%, but add up physical bars, central banks and coins and more than half of gold demand is now investment and reserves. Only about 7% goes into electronics. Gold is mostly money, then ornament, then technology.
Mostly Money, Not Metal
Group the categories and the picture is clear: store-of-value uses (bars, central banks, coins) are about 52%, jewellery about 40%, and technology about 7%. Gold's main job is to hold value, not to do work.
Why Gold Became Money
Gold became money because of what it does not do. It does not rust, tarnish or corrode, so a coin buried for two thousand years comes out gleaming. It is rare but not impossibly so, dense and easy to recognise, and it can be divided and recombined without loss. Almost every gram ever mined still exists, so the supply is stable and slow-growing, about 1.6% a year. Those properties made it the natural store of value across every civilisation, and they are why, when confidence in currencies or markets wobbles, money flows back into gold. In 2025 that is exactly what happened: central banks kept buying and investors poured into gold funds, and a metal with almost no industrial need set record after record. About 7% of gold does real work in electronics, prized for never corroding. The rest is trust, made physical.
2025 average price
~$3,300
per troy ounce, a record
Price rise in 2025
+38%
on top of a record 2024
Store-of-value demand
52%
bars, central banks, coins
Gold-fund inflows
25x
vs the same period in 2024
The Most Diversified Mining There Is (% of world)
Unlike every other metal in this series, no country controls gold. China, the top producer, is only about 12%, the top five just 41%, and the top ten about 60%. Gold is mined everywhere, which is part of why it has always been trusted as money.
A Record Price (gold, USD per troy ounce, annual average)
Gold sat near $1,800 in 2021 and 2022, then climbed as central banks bought and confidence wobbled. It set a record in 2024 and jumped about 38% in 2025 to roughly $3,300 an ounce, with spot prices running higher still.
The Price-and-Demand Story
Gold's price is not about how much is mined; the mine barely moves the total stock. It is about demand for safety. In 2025 that demand was intense. Central banks kept adding to reserves, diversifying away from the US dollar, and money poured into gold-based funds, where holdings rose more than twenty-five fold versus the same period a year earlier. At the same time high prices cut jewellery buying, which fell about 20%, so the rally was driven by investors and institutions, not ornament. The result was a record average near $3,300 an ounce, up about 38% in a year. Because mining is so diversified and the metal is nearly indestructible, gold has no supply shock to fear and no single country to depend on. Its price is a thermometer for trust: when faith in currencies and markets cools, gold runs hot.
Why It Matters
Gold is the one material in this series that is valued for what it will not do. It will not rust, tarnish or react, so it lasts forever and accumulates rather than being consumed. That, plus its rarity and the fact that mining is the most spread-out of any metal, is why every civilisation independently chose it as money. Today over half of demand is store-of-value, bars, central banks and coins, and only about 7% does industrial work, in electronics. The mine adds only about 1.6% to the world's gold each year, so the price is set by trust, not tonnage. In 2025 trust ran scarce: central banks kept buying, investors flooded into gold funds, and the price hit a record near $3,300 an ounce, up about 38% in a year. So the gold question is unlike all the others here. It is not about supply, geology or one country's grip. It is about confidence, and gold is the clearest thermometer we have for how much of it the world has left.