Methodology and sources

One standard for every country

To make the comparison fair, the ranking and country pages use a single source: the IMF's International Liquidity (IL) dataset, which compiles what each central bank reports under common definitions.

The headline figure is gross reserves in US dollars, with gold at market value. It may therefore differ from the figure each central bank publishes under its own methodology.

What we show and what we don't

We only show a figure when an official source exists. If a country does not report something (for example its gold or SDRs), it is simply not shown: we never fill gaps with zeros or estimates.

We do not show net reserves: almost no central bank publishes an official net figure, and the numbers that circulate are private estimates, each with its own method.

Daily data for Argentina and Brazil

For Argentina we use the BCRA's daily international reserves series (variable 1 of its statistics API), in millions of dollars, published with a one or two business-day lag.

For Brazil we use series 13621 from the Banco Central do Brasil (international reserves, liquidity concept), also daily.

No central bank publishes reserves in real time: this daily figure is the most frequent data available.

Composition and gold

Composition splits foreign exchange, gold, special drawing rights (SDRs), the reserve position in the IMF and other assets. Gold tonnes come from reported troy ounces (1 troy ounce = 31.1035 grams).

The gold price shown is the one implied by IMF data (market value divided by reported ounces), at the end of each month. It is not a real-time quote.

Context indicators

Reserves per person, as % of GDP and months of imports use World Bank population, GDP and imports of goods and services (latest available year). They combine a monthly figure with an annual one, so they are an approximate reference.

Ranking and updates

Countries with data from the last 18 months enter the ranking; the rest still have a page showing the date of their latest figure. Taiwan is not part of the World Bank, so it has no context indicators.

Data is downloaded automatically every day. The IMF updates monthly, with a one to three month lag depending on the country.

Map, comparison and history

The map uses low-resolution Natural Earth outlines (public domain), so some very small countries are not shown; their data remains in the ranking. Colors group countries by quintiles.

The year-by-year history uses each year's December figure (or the latest month reported in the current year).