Gold Per Capita

Central bank gold reserves: history and measurement

A factual institutional timeline, current site coverage and a public-domain U.S. Treasury series.

Coverage1900 to present context
Primary sourceUSGS and official institutional sources
Released2026-08-11
CSVJSONSource & licence manifest
Official-reserves coverage29 countriesA source-limited comparison, not a global ranking
U.S. Treasury history2021–20252021–2024 reported; 2025 estimate

How the monetary role of gold changed

This timeline distinguishes currency convertibility from gold’s continuing classification as an official reserve asset.

  1. 1900
    U.S. statutory gold standard

    The Gold Standard Act fixed the dollar’s gold definition within the pre-Federal Reserve monetary system. Federal Reserve History

  2. 1913
    Federal Reserve established

    Federal Reserve notes originally operated with statutory gold-reserve requirements. Federal Reserve History

  3. 1933–34
    Convertibility suspended and gold transferred

    The Gold Reserve Act transferred U.S. monetary gold ownership to the Treasury and changed the official dollar price. Federal Reserve History

  4. 1944–58
    Bretton Woods takes effect

    Member currencies were linked to the dollar while the United States maintained official gold convertibility for foreign monetary authorities. Federal Reserve History

  5. 1968
    Two-tier gold market

    Central banks stopped supporting the private market price through the London Gold Pool. Federal Reserve History

  6. 1971
    U.S. gold window closed

    The United States ended official dollar-to-gold convertibility for foreign monetary authorities. Federal Reserve History

  7. Today
    Gold remains a reserve asset

    The IMF classifies monetary gold among official reserve assets; this no longer implies a fixed gold redemption right for ordinary currencies. IMF reserve-assets guide

Public-domain source

U.S. Treasury gold reported by USGS

U.S. Treasury holdings, 2021–2024 reported and 2025 estimated. This series covers the United States only.

U.S. Treasury gold; 2025 is an estimate
YearMetric tonnesStatus
20218,130reported
20228,130reported
20238,130reported
20248,130reported
20258,130estimate
Supporting official series

Largest values among the 29 covered countries

These are the ten highest reported values in this site’s official-reserves dataset, with each country’s observation date.

Current official gold reserves
RankCountryMetric tonnesObservation
1United States8,133.52026-03-31
2Germany3,351.52026-03-31
3Italy2,451.82026-03-31
4France2,4372026-03-31
5Russia2,332.72026-03-31
6China2,298.52026-03-31
7Switzerland1,039.92026-03-31
8India880.22026-03-31
9Japan8462026-03-31
10Türkiye623.92026-03-31
View all 29 countries