What is the total amount of gold in the world? Nearly 210,000 tons have been mined.

Answering precisely how much gold exists worldwide is not simple. According to the latest statistics from the World Gold Council, by the end of 2023, approximately 212,582 tons of gold have been mined in human history. At first glance, this number seems huge, but relative to the size of the global economy and population, it is actually much less than people imagine. Interestingly, about two-thirds of this gold was mined after 1950, indicating that advances in modern mining technology have significantly accelerated gold extraction.

Human Mined Gold Is Much Less Than You Think

If every ounce of the world’s total gold were melted into a single block, this square-shaped gold bar would only be about 73 feet on each side—this comparison helps visualize the true scale of the total global gold supply. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) estimates slightly lower, around 187,000 tons, but this figure is generally consistent with the World Gold Council data.

To put it more vividly, if all the gold in the world were gathered together, it could fit into four and a half Olympic-sized swimming pools. This comparison shows that although the amount of gold mined by humans is enormous, from a global and collective human ownership perspective, it is not truly abundant.

Limited Underground Reserves and Steady Annual Mining

Every year, the global mining industry continues to extract about 2,500 to 3,000 tons of gold. However, understanding how much gold remains underground is a challenging task. The USGS estimates that the known and economically feasible reserves total about 57,000 tons. This means that, at current extraction rates, the known reserves could support about 20 more years of mining.

However, there may be more undiscovered gold buried deeper underground. Experts estimate that the total amount of gold that cannot be mined with current technology is around 400,000 tons. The difficulty in extracting this gold is mainly due to high costs and lack of economic viability. As gold prices fluctuate, the prospects for mining these reserves continue to face challenges.

Vast Amounts of Gold in the Oceans and Earth’s Core Are Difficult to Access

Scientists estimate that the Earth’s molten metal core contains as much as 16 million billion tons of gold. This astonishing figure cannot be utilized by humans—current technology cannot reach the core to collect it.

The situation is similar in the oceans. According to NOAA data, about 20 million tons of gold are suspended in seawater. While this is a huge reserve, the gold is extremely dispersed in vast amounts of seawater. In the Atlantic and North Pacific, every 100 million tons of seawater contains only about 1 gram of gold, totaling roughly 13.3 million tons. Currently, there are no economically feasible methods to extract it, as the cost far exceeds the value of the gold itself.

The Rarity of Gold Ensures Its Eternal Value

Although gold exists in various forms on Earth, the true picture of the total amount is that easily accessible gold is becoming scarcer, while extraction difficulty continues to rise. This precisely explains why gold has always maintained its preciousness—the value of gold lies in its scarcity. Compared to unlimited supply of paper money and digital currencies, the physical scarcity of gold makes it a store of wealth for civilizations throughout history. The finite total amount of gold worldwide further reinforces its status as the ultimate store of value.