Americans bought far fewer silver bars and coins in 2024 than the year before — 64.9 million ounces, down 46 percent — while Indian buyers took 59.8 million, up 21 percent. Those figures come from the World Silver Survey, the annual book researched by Metals Focus for the Silver Institute, and they are the usual source when someone ranks countries by silver demand.
But “silver demand by country” can mean several different lists: bars and coins bought, coins struck at a mint, silver used in factories, silver made into jewelry, and old silver coming back as scrap. The countries at the top change completely from one list to the next. The sections below take each list in turn, starting with the 2024 bar-and-coin table and then the 2025 tables from World Silver Survey 2026. Mine production is a different ranking again and is not kept here; world mine totals appear near the end and on the desk’s Stocks & flows tab.
What the bar-and-coin ranking counts
The usual ranking is bars and bullion-style coins attributed to a country, net of some dealer-stock swings, and excluding commemorative coins. Metals Focus publishes that table in the World Silver Survey. “United States, 2024, 64.9 million ounces” means identified U.S. bar-and-coin buying in that year, after those adjustments.
The country is where the buyer is, not where the metal came from. Silver coined in Ottawa or Perth can be bought in the United States. Indian bar demand can be metal that arrived as imports. A ranking of bar-and-coin buying is a map of buyers, not a map of mines.
Two world totals for the same year sit side by side. This site’s desk uses 190.9 million ounces of world coin and net bar demand for calendar 2024 (World Silver Survey 2025): coin fabrication plus net bar purchases. The country table’s global total for the same year is 183.3 million ounces. The difference is mechanical — the country series drops commemorative coins and adjusts for dealer inventories — so the two figures are not in conflict.
What the bar-and-coin ranking leaves out
Industrial use is much bigger. In the same 2024 survey, industrial demand was 680.5 million ounces — photovoltaics, electronics, brazing, and the rest. That metal is consumed in products; it never becomes a bar in a drawer. A country that makes a lot of solar paste can be small on the investment table. World Silver Survey 2026’s 2025 industrial figures — world 657.4 million ounces, with its own country ranking — appear further down.
Jewelry and silverware are separate too. In the same 2024 survey those two world lines were about 208.7 and 54.2 million ounces. Jewelry has its own 2025 country table below — world 189.3 million ounces in World Silver Survey 2026 — and silverware was 42.1 million ounces in 2025. Official-sector silver is tiny by comparison: 1.5 million ounces in the 2024 world book.
Funds and futures are outside the ranking as well. Indian silver exchange-traded product holdings rose by about 25 million ounces in 2024, to 38.6 million ounces at year-end. That inflow is metal held by vault-backed funds, not India’s 59.8 million ounces of bar-and-coin investment. A futures position is a different instrument again.
2024 country snapshots
From the World Silver Survey 2025 physical-investment table, in million troy ounces, with the change from 2023. The world total peaked at 337.6 in 2022, fell to 238.2 in 2023, and dropped again to 183.3 in 2024.
- United States 64.9 (2023: 120.8; −46%). Still the largest single country line. Lowest since 2019 in that series.
- India 59.8 (2023: 49.3; +21%). The only major physical market higher in 2024. 2022 was 79.4; 2020 was 8.7.
- Germany 9.9 (2023: 13.3; −25%). 2022 was 48.9. Europe as a whole printed 21.5 in 2024.
- Australia 9.3 (2023: 12.4; −25%).
- Canada 6.4 (2023: 7.9; −18%).
- China 5.5 (2023: 6.2; −10%).
- Other Europe 11.6, other East Asia 10.8, others 5.0.
Four countries — the United States, India, Germany, and Australia — account for most of the identified world total, on the order of four-fifths in recent Metals Focus commentary on the same series.
How the named countries differ
The United States has been the largest physical-investment market in most years of the 2010–2024 series. The exceptions are 2018 and 2019, when India was larger. Cumulative U.S. net purchases over 2010–2024 are on the order of 1.5 billion ounces. Coins take a larger share of U.S. buying than elsewhere — sovereign bullion coins first, then bars. 2024’s 64.9 is a drop from the 2021–2023 plateau near 120–138.
India’s line is mostly bars. Cumulative 2010–2024 bar-and-coin demand in that series is about 840 million ounces. 2024’s rebound followed a late-July cut in the Indian import duty on bullion, from 15 percent to 6 percent, which lowered the rupee price after it had already reached nearly Rs. 100,000 per kilogram. 2020’s 8.7 shows how quickly the line can collapse when the rupee price spikes and people sell metal back instead. Exchange-traded funds sit beside that physical line; they do not replace it.
Germany is the largest European silver-investment market in the same book, and the sharpest recent swing. Identified German buying averaged about 48.5 million ounces a year in 2020–2022, then fell to 13.3 in 2023 and 9.9 in 2024 after an end-2022 margin-tax change on some non-EU bullion coins, a 2023 VAT change on some silver products, and selling back as euro prices crossed €800 per kilogram. Australia’s 2024 9.3 is another second-year decline with higher buybacks. Those are tax, price, and inventory facts — not a ranking of national character.
Where the coins were struck (2025)
World Silver Survey 2026 prints a separate coins and medals table for calendar 2025. World fabrication in that series was 87.9 million ounces, down 7 percent from 2024’s 94.7. That world total matches the survey’s 2025 coin fabrication line in the coin-and-net-bar figures; it is a different number from the 2024 country physical-investment total of 183.3.
The five largest 2025 country lines, in million troy ounces, with the change from 2024:
- India 18.4 (2024: 14.8; +25%).
- United States 15.7 (2024: 28.5; −45%).
- Canada 11.4 (2024: 14.1; −19%).
- United Kingdom 9.8 (2024: 6.8; +44%).
- Australia 8.3 (2024: 10.0; −17%).
Where factories used silver (2025)
World Silver Survey 2026 prints an industrial-demand table by country for calendar 2025. World industrial use was 657.4 million ounces, down 3 percent from the same book’s 679.0 for 2024 — the first contraction since the pandemic, after four years of growth.
The five largest 2025 country lines, in million troy ounces. These are ounces consumed in products.
| Country | 2025 | 2024 | Y/Y |
|---|---|---|---|
| China | 282.9 | 275.4 | +3% |
| United States | 125.5 | 126.9 | −1% |
| Japan | 68.8 | 94.8 | −27% |
| Germany | 31.0 | 31.6 | −2% |
| United Kingdom | 21.6 | 20.5 | +5% |
| World industrial | 657.4 | 679.0 | −3% |
China’s 282.9 is about 43 percent of the 2025 world industrial total (282.9 ÷ 657.4), yet the bar-and-coin table has China at just 5.5 in 2024. That gap is the reason to keep the tables apart. East Asia as a whole was 384.6 in 2025, down 4 percent; the survey attributes most of that regional loss to photovoltaic silver, where East Asian powder makers dominate. China’s own industrial line still rose 3 percent, and electrical and electronics inside China rose 5 percent, to 221.8 million ounces.
Japanese industrial fabrication fell 27 percent, to 68.8. The survey names fierce competition from Chinese silver-powder manufacturers as the main reason. Japan’s electrical-and-electronics line fell 32 percent, to 53.7. The United States was 125.5, down 1 percent from 126.9; Germany 31.0, down 2 percent; the United Kingdom 21.6, up 5 percent.
Where those factory ounces went
The same World Silver Survey 2026 book splits the 657.4 million ounce industrial total by sector. Electrical and electronics came to 449.5 million ounces, of which photovoltaics were 186.6. Subtract one from the other and electrical and electronics excluding photovoltaics is 262.9. Brazing alloys and solders were 50.5; other industrial uses 157.4. Photography is a separate demand line — 24.2 million ounces in 2025 — and is not inside the 657.4 total.
Solar is large, but it is not the whole factory floor. Electronics other than solar remain the single largest industrial use.
| Industrial slice | Million ounces | Share of 657.4 |
|---|---|---|
| Electrical & electronics, excluding PV | 262.9 | 40% |
| Photovoltaics | 186.6 | 28% |
| Other industrial | 157.4 | 24% |
| Brazing alloys & solders | 50.5 | 8% |
| World industrial | 657.4 | 100% |
Against the same book’s 2024 figures, electrical and electronics fell 2 percent, photovoltaics fell 6 percent, other industrial fell 7 percent, and brazing alloys and solders rose 1 percent. The survey names photovoltaic thrifting and substitution — manufacturers using less silver per panel, or other metals — and a slower pace of ethylene-oxide catalyst additions as the main losses. Automotive and aerospace strength supported the small brazing gain.
Where jewelry was made (2025)
World Silver Survey 2026 prints a jewelry table by country for calendar 2025. World jewelry fabrication was 189.3 million ounces, down 8 percent from the same book’s 205.1 for 2024. (The 208.7 million ounce jewelry figure for 2024 earlier on this page comes from the previous year’s survey; the two editions revised the same year.)
The five largest 2025 country lines, in million troy ounces:
| Country | 2025 | 2024 | Y/Y |
|---|---|---|---|
| India | 70.3 | 87.9 | −20% |
| Thailand | 28.5 | 22.9 | +24% |
| Italy | 18.0 | 20.5 | −12% |
| China | 16.2 | 15.4 | +5% |
| United States | 10.3 | 11.3 | −9% |
| World jewelry | 189.3 | 205.1 | −8% |
India’s 70.3 is about 37 percent of the 2025 world jewelry total (70.3 ÷ 189.3), against 59.8 on India’s 2024 bar-and-coin line. Indian fabrication fell 20 percent, to its lowest level in that book since 2021, as high rupee prices and sharp swings during the year cut rural buying and pushed makers toward lighter pieces. The survey credits gold-plated silver and organized retail with limiting a steeper drop.
Thailand made 28.5, up 24 percent, its highest since 2011; the survey attributes the rise to exports to India, which doubled in volume and overtook the United States as Thailand’s largest jewelry buyer. Italy made 18.0, down 12 percent; Europe as a whole was 27.6, down 10 percent, with the survey naming tariff-driven Italian export losses and weaker end-market sales. China made 16.2, up 5 percent after three down years, helped by shoppers switching from gold and by new product lines. The United States made 10.3, down 9 percent; the same book puts U.S. jewelry consumption down just over 20 percent in fine-ounce terms. Silverware remains a separate line — 42.1 million ounces in 2025, down 21 percent.
Where recycled silver comes from (2025)
World Silver Survey 2026 prints a recycling-by-source table for calendar 2025. World recycling was 197.6 million ounces, up 2 percent on the year and a thirteen-year high in that series. That total happens to sit close to the 2024 bar-and-coin figure of 183.3 and the 2025 jewelry figure of 189.3, but it counts something else entirely: silver returning to the market, not ounces leaving a mine and not ounces bought or fabricated.
The five source lines, in million troy ounces:
| Source | 2025 |
|---|---|
| Industrial | 110.1 |
| Jewelry | 38.2 |
| Silverware | 28.3 |
| Photographic | 16.2 |
| Coin | 4.7 |
| World recycling | 197.6 |
Industrial scrap, at 110.1, is the largest source — a little more than half of the world total. The survey records a slight dip in that line and names lower e-scrap yields, meaning less silver recovered from each tonne of discarded electronics, as the reason factory scrap did not rise with the rest. Jewelry scrap came to 38.2 and silverware scrap to 28.3; both of those old-metal lines rose. Photographic scrap, a legacy of film processing and X-ray plates, was 16.2; coin scrap, mostly old coins melted down, was 4.7.
Scrap is secondary supply. A jewelry-scrap ounce is metal coming back from old pieces; a jewelry-fabrication ounce is metal going into new ones. An industrial-scrap ounce is recovered from spent products; an industrial-fabrication ounce is consumed in new ones. Scrap runs on a different clock from mining: the scrap clock follows products reaching the end of their lives, while the mine clock on the gold–silver ratio page follows ore coming out of the ground.
World mine output: flat for a decade
Behind all these tables, world mine output has barely moved. The U.S. Geological Survey’s Mineral Commodity Summaries 2016 put world silver mine production at 27,300 tonnes for 2015. Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 prints 25,300 tonnes for 2024 and 26,000 tonnes (estimated) for 2025. A decade on, the world total is still in the mid-20,000s of tonnes, largely because so much silver is mined as a byproduct of other metals rather than for its own sake. The gold–silver ratio page sets that output beside gold’s, and the desk’s Stocks & flows tab shows it live.
The different world totals
Before comparing countries, it helps to know which world total a figure belongs to:
- 190.9 million ounces (2024): coin and net bar demand — coins struck plus net bar purchases.
- 183.3 (2024): country physical investment — bars and bullion coins, by the buyer’s country.
- 87.9 (2025): coins and medals fabrication — silver struck at mints.
- 657.4 (2025): industrial fabrication — silver consumed in products.
- 189.3 (2025): jewelry fabrication — silver made into jewelry.
- 197.6 (2025): recycling — old silver returning to market.
Official gold stocks are covered in central-bank gold reserves. Silver’s history as money beside its industrial use is told in silver: monetary history and industry. Other market figures on this site are collected under markets.