Scarcity is one of the characteristics that give gold value.

Consider gravel. It's everywhere. You walk over it and don't even pause. But if you spot a gold nugget on the ground, you can take that to the bank — literally.

You're probably vaguely aware that gold is scarce, but how little gold actually exists in the world might surprise you.

According to the World Gold Council, the best estimates suggest that as of the end of 2019, around 197,576 tons of gold had been mined throughout history. About 2/3 of that total was pulled out of the ground since 1950.

If you took every ounce of gold in the world and packed it into a cube, it would only measure about 21.7 meters on each side. That's just a little over 71 feet, about as tall as a seven-story building.