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Central Bank Gold Reserves

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The Top Twelve Central Banks Gold Reserve Holdings

The Top Twelve Central Banks Gold Reserve Holdings

With China and India acquiring gold it is interesting to see that the United States still holds almost eight times the gold that China does and more than fourteen times India’s reserves.

Of note is that the United States has 78% of its foreign reserves in gold. Of the countries listed below only Greece (91.6%), Portugal (90.3%), and the Slovak Republic (83.3) have higher rates. However, China has only 1.8% of its foreign reserves in gold. India is looking a little better at 6%.

Only the top 50 countries by gold reserves are listed below. Of course the IMF and a few others are not countries but they do own substantial holdings.

Click on the column headers to sort.

Country Tons1 Percent2 $ Billion3
United States 8,966 78.3 313.80
Germany 3,762 69.5 131.66
IMF 3,546 N/A 124.13
Italy 2,703 66.1 94.59
France 2,701 73.0 94.55
China 1,162 1.8 40.66
Switzerland 1,147 37.1 40.13
Japan 843 2.1 29.52
Netherlands 675 61.4 23.63
Russia 592 4.0 20.71
India 615 6.0 21.52
ECB 553 18.3 19.34
Taiwan 467 3.8 16.34
Portugal 422 90.3 14.76
Venezuela 393 36.5 13.75
United Kingdom 342 17.9 11.97
Lebanon 316 26.8 11.07
Spain 310 39.0 10.86
Austria 309 56.3 10.80
Belgium 251 40.4 8.78
Algeria 191 3.4 6.70
Philippines 170 11.2 5.94
Libya 159 4.3 5.55
Saudi Arabia 158 11.9 5.52
Sweden 146 13.5 5.10
Singapore 140 2.1 4.92
South Africa 137 10.4 4.81
BIS 132 N/A 4.63
Turkey 128 4.9 4.48
Greece 124 91.6 4.34
Romania 114 8.1 4.00
Poland 114 4.8 3.97
Thailand 93 2.0 3.24
Australia 88 7.0 3.08
Kuwait 87 18.6 3.05
Egypt 83 6.3 2.92
Indonesia 81 3.8 2.82
Kazakhstan 80 10.6 2.80
Denmark 73 4.0 2.57
Pakistan 72 17.5 2.52
Argentina 60 3.4 2.11
Finland 54 17.7 1.89
Bulgaria 44 7.2 1.54
WAEMU 40 10.6 1.41
Malaysia 40 1.2 1.40
Peru 38 3.2 1.34
Brazil 37 0.5 1.30
Slovak Republic 35 83.3 1.23
Bolivia 31 10.4 1.09
Ukraine 29 3.1 1.03

Not all countries are listed.

Notes

1. 1 tonne = 1.10231131 short tons.
2. Percentage share in gold of total foreign reserves.
3. 1 short ton = 29,167 troy ounces. Worth is calculated at $1,200 per troy ounce.

Sources

“International Financial Statistics,” International Monetary Fund, 2009.
“Gold reserve“, Wikipedia.
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Mongolian Moments #5

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Mongolian Moments #5

I was raised in socialist England and Santa Claus was mostly referred to as Father Christmas. Father Christmas is used in many other English speaking countries. A similar figure with the same name (in other languages) exists in several other countries, including France (Père Noël), Spain (Papá Noel), Portugal (Pai Natal), Italy (Babbo Natale), and Romania (Moş Crăciun). In past centuries, the English Father Christmas was also known as Old Father Christmas, Sir Christmas, and Lord Christmas.

Since emigrating to the United States all I hear is Santa and I find most people unfamiliar with Father Christmas.

Click on comic strip for larger image. Created using Strip Generator. See all the comics on the Comics Page.
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Missionary Dan Email #6 from Choibalsan, Mongolia

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The house looks really comfortable. Thanks for sending pictures. I liked the comics too. Good job Dad :). Congratulations on losing weight too. That graph looks really fancy. I think I have gained a few pounds since I’ve been here, but there is really no way to tell.

Daniel wearing someone else's glasses.

Daniel wearing someone else's glasses.

Jargal Caikhan got baptized this Saturday. It was really good. He has been an investigator for quite some time. He is 12 years old and his aunt who he lives with is a returned missionary.

The church opened this week so we got to have church. The branch president forgot his paper when he went to announce newly arrived missionaries, so he didn’t even get close to saying my name right. It was funny. Later as I bore my testimony I said a little joke how Mongolians can’t say Willoughby at all. That made them laugh. I need to remember to record them trying to say it, it is funny. I have already met a lot of church members, so it didn’t seem like I was a new missionary in the branch. Church was really great; my other new member who is 60 years old received the Priesthood. That was a really good thing that happened and it made me happy.

We worked hard to find new investigators this week. We didn’t have much success until Sunday. I met a really nice person on the street earlier and he said we could come by. He talked to us for quite a while. He lives in the countryside though so we may not get to teach him that much. It is always exciting to find new investigators.

It’s not hard to deal with the cold really. You wear a coat and its fine. Later this month is when it really gets cold as the 9 nines starts. That will be fun, I’ll probably wear my bigger coat.

Well that’s all I have for this week. The computer’s USB isn’t working so I’ll send some pictures next week.

Love Elder Willoughby.

Daniel by the river in Choibalsan

Daniel by the river in Choibalsan


Presented have been portions of an email from Elder Daniel Willoughby serving in the Mongolia Ulaanbaatar Mission. If anyone wishes to send Daniel a message, write it in the comments and I will make sure he receives it.

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U.S., U.K. and Canadian LDS Church Membership

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LDS Church AlmanacThe complete updated membership statistics are available at United States LDS Membership.

Three days ago I updated the World LDS Membership Statistics using the Deseret News 2010 Church Almanac.

The membership numbers are interesting in tabular form where one can make comparisons. So to the world’s LDS membership’s sortable table I have added U.S. LDS Membership, U.K. LDS Membership Statistics, and Canadian LDS Membership sortable tables. As a bonus I include the change in membership from 1 January 2008 to 1 January 2009 that is not present in the Almanac.

By sorting on the U.S. Membership “Change” column I found that only one state, South Carolina, had a decrease in membership (-173). The three biggest increases came from Utah (34,054), Texas (8,822), and Idaho (7,337).

The largest LDS populations by percentage are in Utah (68%), Idaho (27%), and Wyoming (11.5%). The states with the most members are Utah (1,857,667), California (755,747), and Idaho (406,764). The District of Columbia has the least members (2,200), followed by Rhode Island (3,661), and Vermont (4,323). The most temples are in Utah (14), California (7), and Arizona (5). There are 18 states (including the District of Columbia) without temples.

Canada is interesting in that eight provinces lost members, led by British Columbia at -572. In the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland lost five members but the Kingdom as a whole gained 1,916.

There are many more permutations to be found. How many states do not have a mission? Which state has no stake? Where are the least number of wards? Which state has no branch? Try it.
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New Home In Layton

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Steven, Adelaide and Aurora's new home.

Steven, Adelaide and Aurora's new home.

If you are a friend of Steven and wonder why he has not been online much in the last two days here is the explanation. Steven and Adelaide have purchased a home in Layton. Jill and I helped them move in today a few hours after closing. Two of Steven’s brothers and two of his cousins were also heavily involved in the move. To unload the refrigerator two of Steven’s friends kindly assisted.

Steven and Adelaide are very deserving home owners having worked and saved hard for this day. We are all very happy for them.
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Updated LDS Church Membership Statistics

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2010 LDS Church Almanac

2010 LDS Church Almanac

The 2011 Church Almanac has arrived. See this post for the latest statistics.

Today I purchased the Deseret News 2010 Church Almanac. I like to browse through the membership statistics country by country. Sometimes I come across a country I have never heard of like Benin (east of Nigeria), Mayotte (NW of Madagascar), Palau (east of the Philippines). They sound like Disney characters to me. I don’t look at much else in the Almanac except maybe the occasional temple trivia.

All these membership numbers are all very fine but they would be a lot more useful if they were in tabular form. It’s the comparison that is really useful — well maybe not useful but entertaining. So I put the world’s LDS membership in a sortable table. I added the change in membership from 1 January 2008 to 1 January 2009. By sorting on the “Change” column I found that 16 countries out of 166 had a decrease in membership. The three biggest increases came from the United States (100,633), Brazil (41,403), and Mexico (36,343). Canada had the biggest loss with -502.

The largest LDS populations by percentage are in Tonga (45%), Samoa (31%), and American Samoa (22.5%). The United States comes in at 13th with 2%, tied with Palau — there’s that Disney character again.

The countries with the most members are the United States (5,974,041), Mexico (1,158,236), and Brazil (1,060,556). The Falkland Islands has the least members (5) of any country that has members. The most temples are in the United States (72), Mexico (12), and Canada (7).

There are many more permutations to be found. Try it.
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Mongolian Moments #4

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Mongolian Moments #4

Uuz

Uuz is Mutton Back that is stewed in one piece. A well fed sheep will collect substantial fat in the lower back and in the tail as an energy reserve. This fat is the main component of Uuz.

Khuushuur

Large filled pockets that are deep fried in mutton fat or Khuushuur.

Buuz

Buuz are small filled pockets, cooked under steam, and usually have an opening at the top.

Daniel got quite sick eating Byyz, which sounds like it is Buuz, but who knows?

Click on comic strip for larger image. Created using Strip Generator. See all the comics on the Comics Page.
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Missionary Dan Email #5 from Choibalsan, Mongolia

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Daniel (fifth left) at a couple missionary's home for Thanksgiving

Daniel (fifth left) at a couple missionary's home for Thanksgiving

This week was full of adventures. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. All the missionaries went to Elder and Sister Anderson’s house to the dinner. They are the couple that is assigned to our area. We had chicken instead of turkey. The stuffing was really good. That is always my favorite and we had some great pumpkin pie.

The house looks way awesome! Congratulations I hope all goes well. It is exciting that Steven and Ada are having another kid. They could have a third one on the way before I get home :). Congratulations a second time.

The sisters apartment lock broke and they weren’t able to get in their house. So they had to take over our apartment while we slept at the district leader’s house. We fixed their lock today so we get to be at home again. It was really strange to find a long black hair on my sheets.

Daniel with a member called Purvee

Daniel with a member called Purvee

The church was closed again so we took the sacrament to the members again. We did it 9 times to 58 people. Hopefully the church will be open next week. The Branch President returned from his temple trip so we got to meet him. He is young and really cool. The members are still very thankful to receive the sacrament.

I mistook the words “work cow” for “husband” at one of the member’s houses. She was asking if we could give the left over blessed bread to her husband. She said, “He eats vegetables, fruit, paper, meat, just about anything. I thought for a moment and it really didn’t make sense to me. So I asked her, “Your husband?” That was funny, we laughed very hard.

I got the Primary letters last week. The package will be coming with President when he makes his trip out here for zone conference on December 11. So I’ll get it then. Also that is when my companion leaves. When I get my new companion I’ll be to a total of 11. That is quite a few for only being half way. Maybe soon I’ll have a companion for more than one half transfer. Anyway thanks for the all letters. They are way fun to read.

Love Elder Willoughby.

Presented have been portions of an email from Elder Daniel Willoughby serving in the Mongolia Ulaanbaatar Mission. If anyone wishes to send Daniel a message, write it in the comments and I will make sure he receives it.

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Giving Thanks The Pilgrims Left

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The Embarkation of the Pilgrims

The Embarkation of the Pilgrims

I was born in England and emigrated to the United States while in my twenties. I am thankful to be living here and the people have been very welcoming and kind.

My two brothers were also able to emigrate and they and their families will join me and my family for Thanksgiving today.

Occasionally I am asked if we have Thanksgiving in England. My stock answer is always is the same:

We do have Thanksgiving in England. We give thanks those annoying pilgrims left.

About the Painting

Protestant pilgrims are shown on the deck of the ship Speedwell before their departure for the New World from Delft Haven, Holland, on July 22, 1620. William Brewster, holding the Bible, and pastor John Robinson lead Governor Carver, William Bradford, Miles Standish, and their families in prayer. Painted by Robert Weir (1803-1889).

When Speedwell reached Southampton they met with Mayflower and additional colonists. The two vessels set out on August 5 (old calendar) / August 15 (new calendar). Soon after, Speedwell began taking in water, so both were diverted to Dartmouth. There Speedwell was inspected for leaks and sealed, but a second attempt to depart also failed, bringing them only so far as Plymouth.

It was decided that Speedwell was untrustworthy, and it was sold. It would later be learned that crew members had deliberately caused the ship to leak, allowing them to abandon their year-long commitments. The ship’s master and some of the crew transferred to Mayflower for the trip. (Wikipedia)

High-resolution version (3.5Mb)
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