The world now hoards more gold than it wears.

Annual global gold demand in tonnes: gold bought to wear (jewellery) against gold bought to store (bars, coins and central-bank buying), 2010 to 2024. In 2022 hoarding overtook wearing for the first time, and it has stayed ahead since.

Why this is happening

Gold has become so expensive that wearing it is now a luxury people ration. In 2024, with the price at records, jewellery demand fell 11 percent.
At the same time central banks went on a buying spree, taking more than 1,000 tonnes a year from 2022 after Russia's reserves were frozen, racing to hold a reserve no rival government can switch off.
Households piled in too, stacking bars and coins as insurance against inflation and instability, so the metal keeps moving from jewellery boxes into safes and vaults.

The take

When gold flows out of jewellery boxes and into vaults, people are not shopping, they are bracing. Central banks and savers alike are loading up on the one asset that is nobody else's promise to break.

Source: World Gold Council, Metals Focus (2025)