Sovereign and dependent territory rows of the World Bank “Total reserves (includes gold, current US$)” indicator (top 30 by most recent year). Values in billions of USD, rounded to two decimals. Aggregates (region.id === “NA”) excluded. Comprises foreign exchange, gold (at market value), SDRs, and IMF reserve positions. Original source: IMF IFS.
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How to use this chart
Play/Pause starts and stops the year-by-year animation, the year slider jumps to any year, and the speed selector (0.5×, 1×, 2×) changes playback speed. Each year shows the top 12 entries out of the 30 held in the dataset.
About this ranking
About this metric. “Total Reserves by Country (Time Series)” reformats data published by the World Bank (indicator code FI.RES.TOTL.CD, original source IMF). It covers foreign exchange, gold at market value, SDRs, and IMF reserve positions, expressed in billion USD.
What to watch. The handover moment is 2006, when China overtakes Japan and then races toward four trillion dollars. Behind the whole field’s growth sits one event — the 1997 Asian financial crisis, which taught emerging economies to stockpile reserves as insurance.
Caveats. Values are nominal USD with gold marked to market, so gold-price and exchange-rate swings show up as reserve changes. No inflation adjustment is applied across decades.
Trends in the data
China passed Japan in 2006. That year China held 1,080.76 billion dollars against Japan’s 895.32 billion. In 1980 China was still at 10.09 billion, a small fraction of Japan’s holdings. From there it built to 171.76 billion in 2000, 831.41 in 2005 and 2,913.71 in 2010, peaking at 3,900.04 billion in 2014. At 3,456.02 billion in 2024 it has in fact been flat — slightly declining — for a decade since that peak.
The 30-country total has changed magnitude too: 47 billion dollars in 1960, 713 in 1980, 1,719 in 2000, 8,673 in 2010 and 12,833 billion in 2024, a 273× increase in 64 years. The largest multiple is India’s 959.76× (0.67 → 643.04 billion), with Libya at 1,161.13× and the Philippines at 816.92× — countries starting from an extremely small base produce nominally enormous multiples. Japan grew 631.11× (1.95 → 1,230.67 billion) and Switzerland 385.33×.
The biggest caveat here is that these are nominal US dollars, adjusted for neither inflation nor exchange rates. A 1960 dollar and a 2024 dollar are entirely different things, so a large share of that 273× is explained by prices and currency values. Gold is also valued at market prices, so reserves rise in a year when the gold price rises even if holdings do not change. That is why the lines for the United States and Germany, with high gold shares, move in a distinctive way.
Rank changes are substantial. The United Kingdom, third in 1960, is 19th in 2024; Canada fell from 7th to 23rd, Spain from 10th to 26th and Malaysia from 11th to 24th. Climbing the other way are Singapore (23rd → 9th), Saudi Arabia (20th → 7th), South Korea (21st → 8th), Japan (8th → 2nd) and India (9th → 5th) — a line-up shaped by countries that switched to holding thick reserves as insurance after the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Note that Hong Kong has no 2024 value, so the latest ranking covers 29 countries.
Trivia quiz
What are foreign exchange reserves mainly held for?
Paying for imports and external debt, and funding currency intervention — an insurance policy against currency crises. (Source)
Which 1997 event, starting with the collapse of the Thai baht, pushed Asian countries to stockpile reserves?
The Asian financial crisis, which hit Thailand, Indonesia, and South Korea hard and forced Korea into an IMF bailout. (Source)
What is the IMF-allocated reserve asset whose value is set by a currency basket?
The SDR (Special Drawing Right), based on the dollar, euro, renminbi, yen, and pound. (Source)
Source
World Bank — Total reserves, includes gold, current US$ (FI.RES.TOTL.CD)