The gold price's development – returns and long-term trends since 1999
How has gold actually performed? Here you'll see the full long-term curve and the average annual return for purchases made 1, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 years back — measured per gram in your chosen currency.
Gold price per gram since 1999
Average return per year
Calculated as CAGR — the annual growth rate that connects the start and end price. The purchase price is the first available daily rate at least X years back.
| Bought | Purchase price | Price today | Total | Avg. per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 years agooutside data range | — | — | — | — |
| 3 years agooutside data range | — | — | — | — |
| 5 years agooutside data range | — | — | — | — |
| 10 years agooutside data range | — | — | — | — |
| 15 years agooutside data range | — | — | — | — |
| 20 years agooutside data range | — | — | — | — |
| 25 years agooutside data range | — | — | — | — |
What would your investment have grown into?
Value today
The calculation uses the spot price and ignores purchase premiums, storage and dealer spread. If you buy physical metal, you typically pay a couple of per cent above spot and receive slightly below spot on resale.
The value of your holding across the whole period
Three lessons to remember from the history
1. Returns are concentrated. Most of gold's rise since 1999 has come in relatively few years — 2001–2011 and 2019–2025. The years in between offered long stretches of sideways movement or decline. That's normal for gold, and the reason short windows are often misleading.
2. Gold is better measured in real terms. After the inflation of the 1970s and 1980s, gold took over 20 years to regain its purchasing power in dollars. That lesson is part of why central banks are again building up reserves — they think in decades, not quarters.
3. Currency matters. Measured in dollars and kroner the prices track each other closely, but in euros, yen and other currencies gold can rise even when the dollar price stands still. Switch the currency at the top of the page and see the difference on the chart.
Bearing risk and costs in mind
The table shows the raw metal price. If you buy physical coins and bars, a premium of typically 2–8% is added, and on sale you typically get a little under spot. That's factored into our gold calculator in the payout percentage.
Questions and answers
How much has gold risen per year on average?
Since 1999 the gold price has on average risen around 8–9% a year in euros, and similarly in kroner — but with big swings from year to year. The table on this page shows the precise average for 1, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 years back.
Is gold a good investment compared with shares?
The two serve different purposes. Shares have historically delivered higher returns over long periods, but with bigger drops along the way. Gold typically returns less, but often moves independently of the stock market and has protected purchasing power through inflation, crisis and currency turmoil.
Does gold protect against inflation?
Over very long periods, yes — gold has retained its purchasing power for centuries. Over short periods, though, the price swings far more than inflation, so gold is no guarantee over a one-year horizon.