Countries With the Most Natural Resources, Region by Region

Measured by the value of the natural resources they actually extract, the countries with the most natural resources are Russia ($338.6 billion in 2021), China ($310.8 billion) and the United States ($303.7 billion), according to World Bank data on natural resource rents. Saudi Arabia, Australia, Brazil, Iran, Canada, India and Iraq make up the rest of the top 10. Together these ten countries earned nearly two-thirds of the roughly $3 trillion that the whole world made from oil, gas, coal, metals and timber that year. Each region has its own leader: Russia in Europe, China in Asia, Saudi Arabia in the Middle East, the United States in the Americas, Nigeria in Africa and Australia in Oceania.

How the World Bank’s 2021 resource-rent figures are built

There is no agreed way to count “natural resources”. Lists that circulate online often put one dollar value on everything in the ground, and Russia is frequently credited with about $75 trillion. Those totals depend on the prices assumed and on reserves that may never be dug up, and they are hard to check. This ranking uses a figure you can check. For each country, the World Bank estimates the rent from five resources: oil, natural gas, coal, metals and minerals, and forests. Rent means the value of what was produced at world prices minus the cost of producing it. The World Bank publishes the total as a share of GDP. Multiplying that share by GDP in current US dollars gives the figures used here.

This choice has consequences. Rents measure what a country extracts in one year, not what it holds, so a country that leaves its oil underground scores low. They also change with prices: 2021 was a year of recovering oil and metal prices after the 2020 slump. Farmland, fresh water and fish are not included. When the World Bank values those as well, in its separate Wealth Accounts, the ranking changes completely. China (about $16.2 trillion of natural capital in 2020) and India (about $7.9 trillion) come first there, mainly because of the value of their farmland. Two countries with huge oil reserves, Venezuela and Kuwait, have no rent figure for 2021, so they are missing from the table.

The ten biggest natural-resource earners in 2021

The two columns tell different stories. China and the United States have huge resource sectors, but these make up less than 2% of their economies. In Iraq, resource rents were 43.4% of GDP, and in Libya, which is not in the top 10 with $21 billion, they were 61.0%, the highest share of any country that year. Canada is only just ahead of India: both earned about $100.1 billion.

Europe and Russia: Siberian oil and gas far ahead of Norway

Russia is first in the world and far ahead of anyone else in Europe. Of its roughly $339 billion, about $177 billion came from oil and $107 billion from natural gas, with metals and minerals adding about $38 billion. The CIA, the US Energy Information Administration and OPEC all say Russia has the world’s largest proven gas reserves, although BP’s figures put it just behind Iran. Most of its oil comes from the West Siberian basin, which supplies about 70% of Russian oil. Geologist Farman Salmanov struck oil there, at Megion in Tyumen Oblast, in 1961, and Siberian oil soon became the main driver of the Soviet economy. Russia also mines more diamonds than any other country, ahead of Botswana, and is the second-largest platinum producer after South Africa. More detail is in our guide to the natural resources of Russia.

The rest of Europe is a long way behind. Norway leads it with $52.4 billion (10.0% of GDP), almost entirely from offshore oil ($32 billion) and gas ($21 billion). The United Kingdom earned about $19 billion, only 0.6% of its GDP. Ukraine earned about $15 billion, mostly from metal ores, and Sweden about $8 billion, mostly from mining.

Asia: China’s coal and metals, then India, Indonesia and Kazakhstan

China’s $310.8 billion looks very different from Russia’s total. Coal accounted for about $111 billion and metals and minerals for about $93 billion, both larger than its oil ($56 billion). China is the world’s largest producer of coal, gold and aluminium. India is next in Asia at $100.1 billion, split almost equally between coal (about $41 billion; India is the second-largest coal producer after China) and minerals (about $42 billion). Indonesia earned about $61 billion and is the world’s top nickel producer. Kazakhstan earned about $53 billion, 26.8% of its GDP, and is the world’s largest producer of uranium. Further south in Central Asia, Uzbekistan earned about $17 billion, 20.5% of its GDP, mostly from gas (about $9 billion) and metals and minerals (about $7 billion). Mongolia earned much less in dollar terms, but its rents equalled 33.1% of GDP, one of the highest shares in Asia.

The Middle East: Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq

Saudi Arabia leads the region, and nearly all of its $251.2 billion came from oil (about $233 billion). Much of that oil comes from the Ghawar field in the Eastern Province. At about 280 by 30 kilometres, it is by far the largest conventional oil field in the world, and by 2018 it had supplied roughly a third of all the oil Saudi Arabia has ever produced. Iran earned $124.0 billion, split between oil (about $74 billion) and gas (about $36 billion); at the start of 2021 it was one of three countries, with Russia and Qatar, that hold most of the world’s proven gas reserves. Iraq earned $91.1 billion, almost all from oil. Smaller Gulf states depend just as heavily on hydrocarbons: the United Arab Emirates earned about $74 billion (17.6% of GDP), Qatar about $49 billion (27.3%) and Oman about $26 billion (29.2%).

The Americas: the United States, Brazil, Canada and Chile

The United States is the largest resource earner in the Americas and the world’s top producer of both oil and natural gas. Its $303.7 billion came mainly from oil (about $145 billion) and gas (about $86 billion), with coal adding about $39 billion. Brazil is second in the region at $132.7 billion, but its mix is different: metals and minerals made up about $75 billion, more than oil’s $44 billion. Canada’s $100.1 billion came mostly from oil (about $57 billion), much of it from the Alberta oil sands.

Chile is the country most tied to a single resource. Almost all of its $53.3 billion (16.9% of GDP) came from minerals, mainly copper, and it is the world’s largest copper producer, ahead of its neighbour Peru ($29 billion in rents). Chuquicamata, 2,850 metres up near Calama in northern Chile, is the world’s largest open-pit copper mine by volume of rock dug out. Mexico earned about $48 billion, Colombia about $17 billion and Argentina about $13 billion, most of it from oil in all three.

Chile has made copper the centre of its economy; our guide to the natural resources of Chile covers the lithium in its salt flats as well. Venezuela, which has the largest proven oil reserves in the world, would be expected in this section. It is missing only because the World Bank has no 2021 rent figure for it.

Africa: Nigeria earns most, the DR Congo depends most

Nigeria led Africa with $52.1 billion, mostly from oil (about $38 billion), just ahead of Algeria at $42.1 billion. South Africa earned about $31 billion and is the world’s largest producer of platinum, chrome and manganese. Measured against the size of their economies, several African countries depend on resources much more heavily than any of the big earners. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, rents of about $23 billion equalled 38.8% of GDP. The Copperbelt that runs across the DRC and Zambia supplies most of the world’s cobalt, and in 2024 the DRC alone produced more than 80% of it. Zambia’s rents were 35.3% of GDP, and Angola’s 30.0%. For more on the Congo’s cobalt, copper and forests, see our guide to the natural resources of the DR Congo.

Oceania: Australia’s Pilbara iron ore

Australia is the leader in Oceania, fifth in the world, and the country whose total depends most on metals and minerals. They made up about $163 billion of its $208.5 billion (13.4% of GDP). Australia is the world’s largest producer of both iron ore and lithium. Much of the iron ore comes from the Pilbara in Western Australia, a dry, red region where mining began with the Pilbara Goldfield in 1888.

Mount Whaleback, officially the Newman West operation, lies six kilometres west of the town of Newman. It is one of five Pilbara iron ore mines run by BHP, which owns 85% of it and also runs more than 1,000 kilometres of railway in the region and two port facilities at Port Hedland. Mines like this, rather than oil wells, put Australia above Brazil, Iran and Canada in the 2021 ranking, and the pattern repeats around the world: Russia ranks first mainly because of oil and gas, China because of coal and metals, and Australia because of iron ore, as our guide to the natural resources of Australia shows in more detail.