Countries with higher gold reserves per person tend also to have higher industrial output per person.
Comparing Total reserves (gold at national valuation) (SDR), per capita with Industry (including construction), value added (constant 2015 US$), per capita across 168 countries, 2022–2025.
- Rank correlation
- +0.79
- Holding size constant
- +0.72
- Countries compared
- 168
- Period
- 2022–2025
What might link these
Both indicators reflect aspects of a nation's economic strength: gold reserves indicate financial buffer and wealth, while industrial value added per capita shows productive capacity. A country that is richer overall may accumulate more reserves and also develop a larger industrial sector, though other factors like institutional quality or natural resource endowments could also play a role.
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. The observed link may be driven by a common underlying factor such as overall national wealth or development level rather than a direct causal relationship.
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.