Gold has been revered as a symbol of wealth and prosperity for millennia. It has managed to maintain its value through the ages and - unlike paper currency, coins, or many other assets - it has been a stable way to pass on and preserve the value of wealth from one generation to the next.
in order to store value as a guarantee to redeem promises to pay depositors or to secure a currency. The United States has the
, amounting to over eight thousand metric tons.
What is gold used for?
Historically, the
most common purpose behind demand for gold is jewelry, which generally accounts for between one and two-thirds of total gold demand. However, this can periodically change, particularly during times of uncertainty, such as the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war, which caused increased levels of gold investments. Increased investment results in inflated
gold prices. Costs reached roughly 2,000 U.S. dollars per troy ounce as of March 2022, aside from a dip in October 2022, gold prices have remained high.
Projections indicate the average price of gold will not begin to fall until 2025.
Why invest in gold?
Historically, gold has been an excellent hedge against
inflation worldwide because of its tendency to increase in value when the cost of living increases. This stability also extends to periods of economic downturn, where the price of gold often does not suffer in the same way as shares (and other more volatile financial assets). Gold is therefore seen as a safe haven asset by many in times of crisis. There are a variety of ways that retail investors can invest in gold. One is through physically owning the metal, but this can raise issues around storage – as well as often having a high buy in price. Alternatively, people can invest in investment funds (mutual funds or ETFs) that own a quantity of gold, effectively giving the investor a share of the physical gold stored by the fund. Gold funds top the list of the
largest precious metals ETFs, with some managing tens of billions of U.S. dollars worth of gold. Finally, there is also the option of investing in shares of gold mining companies. While it could be argued that investing in stocks does away with many of the benefits of investing in gold, it is also the case that
gold mining stocks rose during the pandemic.
This text provides general information. Statista assumes no
liability for the information given being complete or correct.
Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date
data than referenced in the text.
