Gold-to-Silver Ratio: Chart and Historical Guide

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Current Values

The gold-silver ratio tells you how many ounces of silver it takes to buy one ounce of gold. A reading of 80 means one ounce of gold costs as much as 80 ounces of silver. The ratio shows how the two metals are priced against each other, not whether either one is cheap or expensive in dollars.

How the Gold to Silver Ratio Is Calculated

The formula is one division:

Gold-silver ratio = price of one ounce of gold ÷ price of one ounce of silver

Both prices must be in the same currency and per troy ounce. Hypothetical example: if gold settles at $3,000 and silver at $40, the ratio is 3,000 ÷ 40 = 75, written as 75:1.

The currency cancels out of the division. The ratio is the same whether you price the metals in dollars, euros or rupees, provided both use the same currency and unit.

Two details explain why published ratios disagree:

• Price basis. This series uses COMEX futures closing prices for both metals. Spot and intraday prices differ, and a ratio calculated from closes will not catch a spike that reversed within the session.
• Time period. An annual average smooths out the year’s extremes, so the table lists the average, high and low separately.

How to Read the Gold Silver Ratio Chart

A rising line means gold is gaining value relative to silver: gold is rising faster, falling more slowly, or rising while silver falls. A falling line means silver is outperforming gold. Gold and silver can both drop 20% and the ratio will not move.

Silver and gold often trend in the same direction, but not by the same amount. Hypothetical example: if gold doubles and the ratio stays constant, silver must also double. If silver rises only 50% while gold doubles, the ratio climbs by a third. No rule says silver has to follow gold by any fixed multiple.

Three reference points help: the 1-year average, the series high (113.05 in April 2020) and the series low (32.03 in April 2011). A reading well above the 1-year average means gold has recently become expensive relative to silver by the series’ own recent standard. It does not mean the ratio must return to that average.

What Drives the Ratio

Different demand profiles. Gold demand is dominated by investment, central bank reserves and jewelry, while silver also has a large industrial component. When economic fear rises, gold’s safe-haven demand can hold up while silver’s industrial demand weakens. That is why the ratio reached 80.14 during 2008 and peaked in April 2020, after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Silver rallies. The series low in April 2011 came as silver approached $50 an ounce during that year’s precious metals boom. The 2011 annual average of 45.48 is the lowest in the table.

Supply and policy. Once governments stopped fixing the ratio, large silver discoveries and changes in how governments valued each metal pushed it around.

Historical Evolution of the Gold-Silver Ratio

For centuries the ratio was an official rate rather than a market price, because coinage systems based on both metals needed a stable exchange between them:

• Roman Empire: set at 12:1.
• Medieval Europe: about 10:1 around 1350, back to 12:1 by the 1450s.
• United States, 1792: the Coinage Act fixed the ratio at 15:1.

The 20th century brought much wider swings. After President Roosevelt fixed gold at $35 an ounce in 1934, the ratio peaked at about 98:1 in 1939. It drifted lower in the decades after the Bretton Woods system of 1944 tied exchange rates to gold. Once the United States abandoned the last links to the gold standard in the 1970s, both metals floated freely, and the ratio rose to about 94.8:1 in 1991, when silver fell below $4 an ounce. Across the full 20th century, it averaged about 47:1.

Since 2000 the ratio has mostly traded between 50:1 and 80:1. It broke above that band in 2018 and spiked in 2020. Spot-price data put the March 2020 peak above 127:1, against 113.05 in futures closes, and the 2011 low near 32.6:1, against 32.03. Annual averages in this series range from 45.48 in 2011 to 88.28 in 2025.

Is There an Ideal Ratio?

No level is correct or “ideal.” The historical 15:1 came from law, not from markets. A frequently cited long-run average since the 1970s is around 65:1, but any average depends on the start date and the price basis: starting in 2002 gives a different benchmark than starting in 1971 or 1900.

Traders sometimes treat a reading one standard deviation above the mean as stretched, which assumes the ratio is mean-reverting. The history above shows the long-run level itself has shifted from about 15 to the 40s, then to the 60s and 80s, so a past mean is a reference point rather than a target.

Strategies for Trading the Ratio

The ratio is traded as a relative-value bet: a long position in one metal against a short position in the other, sized to equal dollar value.

• Ratio judged high: buy silver, short gold. The trade profits if silver outperforms, so the ratio falls.
• Ratio judged low: buy gold, short silver. The trade profits if gold outperforms.

Hypothetical example: at a ratio of 90, a trader buys $10,000 of silver and shorts $10,000 of gold. Gold then falls 10% and silver 5%. The short gold leg gains $1,000, the long silver leg loses $500, and the net gain is $500 before costs. The ratio falls to about 85.3, and the trade worked even though both prices declined.

The risks are specific to this trade:

• The ratio can keep moving against you. A long silver, short gold trade opened at 80 in early 2020 saw the ratio pass 113 in futures terms before it reversed.
• Contract sizes do not match. A standard COMEX gold futures contract covers 100 troy ounces and a silver contract 5,000, so equal dollar exposure seldom means a one-to-one contract count, and the hedge drifts as prices move.
• Carrying costs. Short positions, futures rolls, financing and dealer premiums all reduce the net result. Measure outcomes using return on investment rather than the ratio’s move alone.

Limits of the Data

The ratio compares two prices, and a high reading can come from expensive gold as easily as from cheap silver. Annual averages hide intra-year swings. Use the chart to see where the relationship stands against its own history, then check the individual metal prices to see which side is doing the moving.

Historical Data

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The Bottom Line

The ratio matters most to precious metals investors weighing silver against gold and to traders running relative-value positions. Treat any past average as a reference point, because the long-run level has shifted over time and need not revert. Before acting on a high or low reading, check both metal prices to see which side is moving, and account for contract sizes and carrying costs.