Episode
Gold and Humanity
- Published
- May 10, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 353
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Summary
As I’m sure you know, it is all but impossible to destroy gold. Yes, yes, nuclear explosions, blah blah, mercury, aqua regia, but to all intents and purposes gold is permanent. It’s been here since before the earth itself, and it’ll be about long after it’s gone, shining away. That also means that all the gold that has ever been mined still exists. Some of it has been lost, of course, but it’s still there somewhere, even if it’s sitting in sunken Spanish galleon off the coast of Tobago. There are just under 7 billion ounces of gold in the world, and just over 8 billion people, so about 4/5 of an ounce per person. Until the gold rushes of the 19th century, there were roughly 2/5 of an ounce per person.As you can see by the chart below there is now more gold per capita than ever before. What’s really interesting, however, is how closely cumulative gold supply tracks global population growth. The two rise at remarkably similar rates over centuries. Gold supply expands slowly, organically and roughly in line with humanity itself. No central bank planned it that way. Right there is why gold is nature’s money. But there are some changes afoot. Population growth is slowing rapidly. It is actually going backwards in some parts of the world. The Matt Ridley argument is that this is a result of prosperity. Merryn Somerset Webb thinks it’s even more specific than that. She blames smart phones. She may have a point. South Korea is perhaps the most advanced smart phone nation. When I went there in 2015 I remember thinking that, technologically, it was a good 10 years ahead of Western Europe. Recently we learn it has the slowest population growth of the lot. Annual gold mining supply is at record levels, however: 3,600 tonnes last year. Does this mean gold per capita is set to incre…