Countries With the Most Natural Resources

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Russia is the country with the most natural resources on both of the main yardsticks used to answer this question. By World Bank natural resource rents, the measure behind this ranking, Russia earned $474.1 billion from its oil, gas, coal, minerals and forests in 2021. It also tops the best-known estimate of the total value of resource reserves, which put Russia’s natural wealth at about $75 trillion as of 2021. The United States, China and Saudi Arabia follow on rents. The countries below them shift depending on which measure you use.

What the Ranking Measures

The order is based on total natural resource rents, a World Bank series covering five components: oil, natural gas, coal, minerals and forests. A resource rent is the value of what a country extracts, priced at world market prices, minus the cost of extracting it.

The dollar figure is derived with a simple formula:

Natural resource rents ($) = rents as a share of GDP × GDP

Two consequences follow from this definition.

• It measures a yearly flow, not a stockpile. A country with vast untapped reserves but little production earns small rents. A country that pumps and mines heavily earns large rents, even if its reserves are smaller.
• It moves with commodity prices and costs. Rents are calculated at world prices, so a year of high oil prices raises the figures for oil producers, and cheap-to-extract deposits produce more rent per barrel or ton than expensive ones.

Almost every figure is for 2021. Kuwait’s is for 2020, so its position compares a different year with everyone else’s.

Rents vs. Reserve Value: Why Rankings Disagree

The other widely cited ranking comes from Statista’s 2021 estimates of the value of each country’s natural resource reserves. No comparable global estimate of total resource wealth has been published since. That list values what is in the ground, which explains why it looks different:

China, Australia and Brazil rank higher on rents than on reserve value, which reflects how much they extract each year. Canada and Iran rank lower. India, seventh by rents, does not appear in the reserve-value top ten at all.

Venezuela shows the gap most clearly. It reportedly held the world’s largest proven oil reserves in 2023, yet it is absent from the 25 countries ranked here. Most of those reserves sit in the Orinoco Belt as extra-heavy crude, which takes considerable technical expertise to extract. U.S. sanctions have also limited international involvement.

Two Ways to Read the List: Size and Dependence

Each country has two numbers. The dollar rent shows the scale of resource earnings. The share of GDP shows how much of the economy those earnings represent. The two can point in opposite directions:

• The United States ranks second by dollar rents, yet its 1.3% share of GDP is the lowest of the 25 countries ranked. China’s 1.7% is close behind. In both, resource extraction is large in absolute terms but small next to the rest of the economy.
• Iraq ranks ninth by dollars but has the highest share in the ranking at 43.4%. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (38.8%), Iran (30.4%), Angola (30.0%), Kuwait (29.3%) and Oman (29.2%) also derive large portions of GDP from resource rents.
• Saudi Arabia (25.6%) and Russia (18.5%) combine top-five dollar rents with high dependence.

A high share means swings in commodity prices pass more directly into national income, public revenue and the exchange rate. A low share means the country can absorb a price collapse more easily, even if its resource sector is huge.

Country Profiles

Russia

Russia leads on both measures because its resource base is broad. As of 2024 it held the world’s largest proved natural gas reserves, about 1.69 quadrillion cubic feet or nearly a quarter of the global total, and it was the third-largest crude oil producer with 11.1% of world supply. Its proven oil reserves were estimated at around 80 billion barrels. As of 2025 it held the second-largest gold reserves, about 12,000 tons, and it accounted for 42% of global industrial diamond production and 44% of reserves. Russia’s own natural resources ministry valued the country’s mineral reserves at $2.20 trillion at the end of 2022. That figure is far below the $75 trillion estimate because it covers minerals only and uses a different method.

United States

The U.S. holds the world’s largest proven coal reserves and is a leading coal producer. It also has substantial oil, natural gas, copper and gold deposits, along with uranium, rare earth elements, timber and extensive arable land. Its rents rank second, but its low GDP share makes it a very different case from the Gulf producers near it in the ranking.

China

China ranks third by rents. It controls a large share of global rare earth production and has substantial timber, arable land, oil, natural gas, gold, aluminum and other minerals. Its rivers give it the world’s greatest hydropower potential. Hydropower is not one of the five rent components, so that advantage does not appear in its figure.

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia’s rents come overwhelmingly from oil, which it has exported since its discovery in 1938. It holds some of the largest proven oil reserves in the world, and its economy depends heavily on oil exports. Other resources include copper, phosphate, silver, sulfur, tungsten and zinc.

Australia

Australia ranks higher on rents (fifth) than on reserve value (eighth), consistent with a large export-oriented mining sector. It was the world’s largest net exporter of coal as of 2024. It is also a major producer of oil and liquefied natural gas, although its proven oil reserves were a modest 1.8 billion barrels in 2024. Its minerals include iron ore, alumina, copper, gold, uranium, nickel, rare earth elements and zinc.

Brazil and Canada

Both are broad resource economies with moderate GDP shares. Brazil, sixth, was the sixth-largest oil producer in 2024. It mines bauxite, platinum, copper, gold, iron and tin, and about 59.1% of its land was forested as of 2022, which makes timber a significant resource. Canada ranks eighth by rents despite placing fourth by reserve value. It holds some of the world’s largest oil reserves, is a leading natural gas producer, and has potash, gypsum, uranium, coal, copper, nickel, zinc, gold and silver.

Iraq and Iran

These two sit almost level in dollars ($110.5 billion and $110.4 billion), so the difference that matters is dependence. Iraq’s rents equal 43.4% of GDP against Iran’s 30.4%. Iraq is OPEC’s third-largest crude producer, holds some of the largest proved oil reserves in the world, and relies on crude exports for a major share of its revenue. Its desert terrain also holds natural gas, phosphates and sulfur. Iran was OPEC’s second-largest crude producer and the world’s third-largest natural gas producer in 2024. Its other resources include coal, chromium, copper, iron ore, lead, manganese, zinc and sulfur.

Mineral-Driven Economies Lower in the List

Not every entry is an oil story. Chile (16.9% of GDP), Peru (12.7%) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (38.8%) are mining economies. They matter more for the critical minerals that energy and technology industries increasingly need than their dollar positions suggest. Kazakhstan, 12th with a 26.8% share, combines energy and mining.

Renewable and Nonrenewable Resources

Four of the five rent components (oil, gas, coal and minerals) are nonrenewable resources in finite supply. Forest rents are the only renewable part of the measure. Countries with major forest wealth, such as Brazil, gain from that component, but the ranking leans heavily toward extractive industries. It also does not capture forests’ wider value, such as absorbing carbon dioxide and supporting plant and animal species.

How to Use This Ranking

• To find the largest resource earners, read the dollar figures. They reflect 2021 prices, and another year could reorder close entries such as Iraq and Iran.
• To judge economic exposure to commodities, read the share of GDP, which identifies countries whose growth and budgets move with oil, gas or metal prices.
• To estimate untapped potential, use reserve estimates instead, since rents understate countries such as Venezuela.

FAQs

The Bottom Line

The ranking matters most to readers comparing resource economies or judging exposure to commodity prices. Dollar rents show which countries earn the most from extraction in a given year, while share of GDP shows whose budgets and growth swing with oil, gas or metal prices. Anyone gauging untapped potential, as in Venezuela's case, should rely on reserve estimates instead of rents.