Nations with higher energy use per person tend to hold more gold reserves per person.
Comparing Total reserves (gold at market value) (SDR), per capita with Primary energy use, per capita across 171 countries, 2024–2025.
- Rank correlation
- +0.84
- Holding size constant
- +0.77
- Countries compared
- 171
- Period
- 2024–2025
What might link these
Wealthier countries likely consume more energy and can afford to hold larger gold reserves. A careful reader should note that correlation does not imply causation—other factors like financial stability or historical reserves policies might drive both.
Why this is not proof of anything
This is a correlation across countries, not an experiment. It cannot show that either indicator causes the other, and both may simply follow a third thing. Gold reserves are often reported in SDRs, which could introduce artificial scaling effects unrelated to actual holdings.
The second figure above repeats the measurement with national population and income held constant. It is the more conservative number: a relationship that largely disappears there was mostly telling you that larger, richer countries have more of most things.
How this was measured
Both indicators were ranked across every country reporting each, and the two rankings compared — ranks rather than raw values, because a handful of very large countries can otherwise manufacture a relationship on their own. The calculation is arithmetic over figures already published on this site; the commentary above is drafted from the two indicator names and the resulting coefficients.