Despite being a large and liquid market, gold bullion held by investors is still only a small portion of global investable assets, suggests a World Gold Council report.
The $9 trillion gold bullion held by individual and institutional investors in the form of bars, coins, gold exchange traded funds (ETFs) and over-the-counter (OTC) accounts for merely 3 per cent of the estimated $320 trillion invested across financial assets (equities, debt, alternative assets) globally, WGC estimates. Historically, this share was significantly higher at around 14 per cent about 40 years ago, it said.
The total above ground stock of gold is large in both physical and financial terms: almost 220,000 tonnes of gold have been mined throughout history, WGC estimates, valued at nearly $31 trillion at the end of 2025.
Gold holdings
That said, gold holdings are not uniform across portfolios, the report suggests. WGC’s research across various segments suggests that up to 30 per cent investors may not have any allocation to gold – and among those investors who do hold gold, institutions in particular tend, on average, to be significantly under-allocated.
“In contrast, our analysis shows that investors can benefit from a 5 per cent strategic allocation in a well-balanced portfolio, with a range between 2 per cent to 10 per cent depending on their investment objectives. For investors in some markets, such as India or Japan, the optimal allocations may be higher,” WGC said.
At the end of 2025 central banks held around 38,670 tones gold, according to WGC’s estimates, worth nearly $5 trillion. By the third quarter of calendar year 2025 (Q3CY25), gold accounted for 26 per cent of total global allocated reserves, according to IMF COFER data, with only the US dollar holding a greater share.
But there is a clear divergence between how central banks in the developed and emerging markets (EM) approached gold. In 2025, developed market central banks held, on average, 30 per cent of their total reserves in gold, the WGC report suggests.
In comparison, their emerging market (EM) peers held just 15 per cent. “This compares with around 4 per cent in 2010, after which EM central bank demand for gold expanded rapidly,” WGC said.
EM – dominated by China and India – represent around 50 per cent of annual global gold demand, according to WGC’s estimates, while the developed markets account for the remainder.
