The world is in the middle of some very consequential issues. The UK is debating Brexit, and how it turns out could have a far-reaching impact not only on other countries in the European Union (EU), but across the globe. The Americans are in the middle of a political showdown between Republican Donald Trump and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi over funding for a border wall. Who blinks first may regret it years later. The Chinese economy is teetering on what some would call “normalization”, meaning growth out of China would no longer be the darling of the economic world.
The list of important things in the world right not doesn’t stop with these big ones.
Throughout all this, gold has continued on a healthy rise since the latter half of 2018.
With this background in mind, an interesting question to ask is this. Which has more interest – Brexit or the price of gold? Which countries would you guess have a higher interest in gold compared to Brexit? Take your guess, because the Google Trends results follows.
Fascinatingly, although not quite surprising, in the past week the countries with the least interest in Brexit compared to their interest in gold are India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Pakistan. The fact that India shows up on the top of the gold versus Brexit interest is completely unsurprising given India’s heavy use of gold in weddings and other social customs.
Other countries with a stronger interest in gold include Nigeria, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, the United States, Malaysia, Brazil, Mexico, and others.
Are there countries where interest in Brexit beats searches for gold?
There most certainly are. On the bottom of the bar chart are countries where Brexit wins?
Before looking, can you guess which countries these are?
Perhaps completely unsurprisingly, the country with the highest interest in Brexit in relation to gold is Ireland. The differential is an amazing 69% for Brexit and only 31% for gold.
Which other countries show up on the top of the Brexit interest list? The United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Spain, and France round out the top 5.
Interestingly, there are total of 10 countries where interest in Brexit outpaces interest in gold at the moment. Outside of the just-mentioned top 5, the other countries with more interest (or at least equal interest) in Brexit than in gold are Belgium, Portugal, Italy, Germany, and Switzerland.
Conclusion
Overall, the world’s interest in Brexit and gold is as diverse as the human population as a whole. How interests in these two topics play into the future of the price of gold and the UK’s move to leave the EU is, of course, yet to be seen. One thing is for sure, though, people are interested.
