Econintersect: With everybody watching the remarkable rise in the price of gold over the past ten years, how many know that much about the metal as a 
commodity? How much is there? How much has already been mined? Who in the world is using the metal and why?
One example of surprising information is that the U.S., the wealthiest country in the world by far, was only third ranked in consumption in 2010. India, with not quite four times the population of the U.S., consumed almost six time as much gold in 2010 as did the USA. China also consumes more gold than the U.S., but not more on a per capita basis in spite of the fact that China is the world’s largest gold producer. More than 50% of the world’s gold is used in jewelry.
Another fact derived from U.S. Geological survey data is that more than half of all the gold mined in the history of the world has been extracted in the last 50 years and 85% since 1900. An info graphic follows Read more…
The following info graphic from Number Sleuth reviews data concerning the amounts and usages of gold and how those are distributed around the world.
Click on info graphic for larger image.
From: Number Sleuth
Sources:
All the World’s Gold (Number Sleuth.org)
Gold Statistics (U.S. Geological Survey, 2 November 2010)
