Charted: If Gold Was Shared Equally, How Much Would You Get?

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Desired for millennia because of its shine and rarity, gold is still the safe haven asset (with fairly decent returns) in times of uncertainty.

This chart examines a hypothetical question of how much gold every person in the world would get if all discovered gold was shared equally.

Data for this graphic is sourced from the U.S. Geological Survey and from the UN’s World Population Prospects 2024.

There’s Not a Lot of Gold for 8 Billion People

Turns out, there really isn’t a lot of gold in the world.

To date, only 244,000 metric tons of gold have ever been discovered. This includes historical production and current known discoveries.

That works out to about 30 grams (about one troy ounce), or six gold rings, for every single human being on the planet.

Of course, jewelry isn’t the only use of gold (though it does account for the largest share of above-ground use).

Central banks have quite a bit in their reserves, with the U.S. holding the most at roughly 8,000 tonnes.

At sixth place China (2,200 tonnes) has been steadily increasing its reserves in the past year, in a bid to diversify foreign exchange reserves away from the U.S. Treasury bonds.

Largest Gold Producers

And then there’s all the gold beneath the ground, spread out in massive mines across the world. Of them, Australia is home to two in the top 10, and is also the second-largest producer.

Who’s the largest producer? That’s China—even though it doesn’t have any large mines on the same scale as those found in the U.S. and Australia. Instead it has numerous smaller ones, and coupled with efficient smelting infrastructure, ends up producing more volume.

Finally, South Africa held the top supplier spot between 1900–1970. Its production peaked at about 1,000 tonnes annually, the most by any country in a single year.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

Need even more gold graphics? Good thing we have a few. Check out: Visualizing Gold Consumption vs. Domestic Supply to see which countries use the most gold.

Charted: The Global Mining Industry, by Market Cap

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

This graphic breaks down the market value of the entire global mining industry, as of Jan. 16, 2025, using data from Companiesmarketcap.com.

Note that this data only covers publicly-traded companies.

Australia and Canada Lead

Australia tops the list, with its major mining companies totaling $353 billion in market capitalization. The country is home to two of the biggest miners in the world, BHP and Rio Tinto.

Rich in minerals, Australia is the world’s largest producer of iron ore, essential for steel production, and lithium, a key component in batteries.

While Canada’s economy has struggled to keep pace with its southern neighbor, its mining industry remains formidable.

The country’s mining sector has a combined market capitalization of $344 billion, making it the second-largest globally.

Canada, the world’s second-largest country by area after Russia, has vast natural resource wealth. It is particularly rich in gold, copper, nickel, and potash.

United States with miners totaling $228 billion and China with companies totaling $206 billion come in third and forth, respectively.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

If you enjoyed this topic, check out this graphic showing the number of mines that must be developed to meet the expected demand for energy transition raw materials and chemicals by 2030.