In its latest Central Bank Gold Reserves Survey, the World Gold Council (WGC) reports that central banks are as enthusiastic as ever towards gold, with a record 45% of central banks reporting that they plan to increase their gold reserves in the coming 12 months.

The survey shows that central banks have accumulated an average of 1 000 t of gold over the past four years, up significantly from the 500 t average over the preceding decade.

This marked an acceleration in the pace of accumulation against a backdrop of geopolitical and economic uncertainty, which has clouded the outlook for reserve managers.

Similar to findings from previous surveys, central banks continue to hold favourable expectations on gold. The WGC notes that respondents overwhelmingly (89%) believe that global central bank gold reserves will increase over the next 12 months.

The WGC notes that gold’s performance during times of crisis, portfolio diversification and inflation hedging are some of the key factors for central banks to hold gold. In addition, gold as a geopolitical risk hedge and gold as part of a reserve diversification policy also feature as key reasons for increasing allocations to gold.

Moreover, the majority of respondents (74%) see moderate or significantly lower dollar holdings within global reserves over the next five years. Respondents also believe that the share of other currencies, such as the euro and renminbi, will remain unchanged over the same period, while gold holdings will increase.

This year’s survey asked respondents how they would fund their new gold purchases. The WGC says half of respondents indicated through a domestic purchase programme in local currency, while 38% indicated through selling existing reserve assets.

Additionally, the WGC says the Bank of England remains the most popular vaulting location among respondents at 57%, though central banks continue to diversify their storage across multiple locations.

Domestic storage came in second at 49%, followed by the Bank for International Settlements at 16% – a slight uptick from last year. The Swiss National Bank saw a notable decline in preference, dropping to 6% from 12% in 2025.

Meanwhile, a notable increase in changes to vaulting locations was observed in this year’s survey, with 9% saying they have increased domestic storage and 10% saying they have diversified overseas storage locations in the past 12 months, compared with 5% and 2% respectively in last year’s survey.

The WGC says the trend is also observed in future plans for vaulting, with 7% saying they plan to increase domestic storage and 9% saying they plan to diversify overseas storage locations in the coming 12 months.

This year marks the ninth edition of the Central Bank Gold Reserves Survey. Over that time, the WGC says positive sentiment towards gold has increased notably.

It notes that optimism about gold’s future role as a reserve asset has grown alongside a desire by respondents to add more gold to their reserves.

Central banks increasingly view gold as an active and important strategic asset within their reserve portfolios. Ongoing economic and geopolitical uncertainty continues to weigh on reserve managers, as this year’s findings highlight.

Concerns over interest rates, the inflation outlook and geopolitical uncertainty, show that diversification and risk mitigation continue to be key drivers of strategic reserve management decisions.

The WGC says this year’s survey reveals an emergent trend of central banks increasingly looking to diversify gold vaulting locations.

While there are divergences between advanced economy and emerging markets and developing economies' central banks in some aspects, they share a common confidence in gold’s role as a reliable store of wealth and a key component in their long-term reserve management strategies.

“As the world becomes increasingly volatile and unpredictable, gold’s safety, liquidity and return characteristics – the three key investment objectives for central banks – have risen in importance.

“The trends uncovered in our survey suggest that central banks continue to recognise the benefits of an allocation to gold and indicate that their demand for gold will likely remain healthy into the foreseeable future,” the WGC says.