Potash Reserves by Country (K2O Equivalent)

Russia reported 2,000,000 thousand metric tons of potash reserves on a K2O-equivalent basis in 2025, matching its 2018 figure after several years at lower reported levels. Canada followed with 1,100,000, while Laos reached 1,000,000 and moved into third place. The table contains 13 countries with historical figures, including 10 with numeric values for 2025. Their listed 2025 reserves total 5,622,300 thousand metric tons.

Russia and Canada together account for 55.1% of the listed 2025 total. Together, Russia, Canada, and Laos account for 72.9% of the listed total, while Belarus follows with 750,000 thousand metric tons. The figures represent reserves on a K2O-equivalent basis rather than recoverable ore tonnage, so the two USGS reserve measures should not be treated as interchangeable.

Potash Reserves by Country (K2O Equivalent)

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#	Country	Latest Data (thousand metric tons)	Year
1	Russia RU	2,000,000	2025
2	Canada CA	1,100,000	2025
3	Laos LA	1,000,000	2025
4	Belarus BY	750,000	2025
5	Israel IL	270,000	2018
6	Jordan JO	270,000	2018
7	United States US	220,000	2025
8	China CN	200,000	2025
9	United Kingdom GB	170,000	2018
10	Germany DE	150,000	2025
11	Chile CL	100,000	2025
12	Spain ES	100,000	2025
13	Brazil BR	2,300	2025

Russia recorded the largest 2025 increase in the table, rising by 1,080,000 thousand metric tons to 2,000,000.

Russia returns to its 2018 figure

Russia's reported reserve figure moved from 2,000,000 thousand metric tons in 2018 to 400,000 in 2021. It then rose through 650,000 in 2023 and 920,000 in 2024 before reaching 2,000,000 again in 2025. The latest increase was 1,080,000 thousand metric tons, or 117.4%, bringing the reported figure back to exactly the same level as in 2018.

Laos reaches third place

Laos reported 75,000 thousand metric tons from 2020 through 2023 before recording 1,000,000 in 2024. USGS reported the same 1,000,000 figure in 2025, placing Laos behind Russia and Canada and ahead of Belarus. No intermediate reserve figure was reported between 75,000 and 1,000,000 in the series.

Three countries have no later numeric country-level figure

Israel, Jordan, and the United Kingdom last appear with country-level reserve figures in 2018. Their earlier values were 270,000 thousand metric tons for both Israel and Jordan and 170,000 for the United Kingdom. None of these three countries has a later numeric country-level figure in the USGS series; the missing numeric values should not be interpreted as zero reserves. For Israel and Jordan, USGS notes that potash is recovered from the Dead Sea, which contains nearly 2 billion tons of potassium chloride; their reserve entries are shown as "Large" rather than as numeric K2O-equivalent figures.

Potash Reserves by Country (K2O Equivalent)

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#	Country	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
1	Russia	2,000,000	600,000	600,000	400,000	400,000	650,000	920,000	2,000,000
2	Canada	1,200,000	1,000,000	1,100,000	1,100,000	1,100,000	1,100,000	1,100,000	1,100,000
3	Belarus	750,000	750,000	750,000	750,000	750,000	750,000	750,000	750,000
4	China	350,000	350,000	350,000	350,000	170,000	180,000	180,000	200,000
5	Israel	270,000	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
6	Jordan	270,000	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
7	United States	220,000	220,000	220,000	220,000	220,000	220,000	220,000	220,000
8	United Kingdom	170,000	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
9	Germany	150,000	150,000	150,000	150,000	150,000	150,000	150,000	150,000
10	Chile	100,000	100,000	100,000	100,000	100,000	100,000	100,000	100,000
11	Spain	41,000	68,000	68,000	68,000	68,000	68,000	100,000	100,000
12	Laos	-	20,000	75,000	75,000	75,000	75,000	1,000,000	1,000,000
13	Brazil	4,000	4,000	2,300	2,300	2,300	2,300	2,300	2,300

How the reserve figures are reported

This page uses the K2O-equivalent reserve series from the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2019-2026. The 2025 country figures are the reserve figures reported in the 2026 edition. The table contains 13 historical country entries, but only 10 have numeric values for 2025. Blank entries in this numeric series mean that no numeric country-level K2O-equivalent figure is reported for that year; they are not zeroes. The USGS source may instead use a nonnumeric entry such as "Large."

USGS also reports 300,000 thousand metric tons under "Other countries," which is not assigned to individual countries and is therefore excluded from the country ranking and listed-total calculation. The listed 2025 country values sum to 5,622,300 thousand metric tons. World totals published by USGS may use rounding or lower-bound qualifiers and are kept separate from this calculated country total.

K2O equivalent and recoverable ore are separate reserve measures in the USGS potash tables. This page uses only K2O equivalent, so the two measures should not be compared as though they represented the same quantity. Reserves and production are different measures and should not be combined without equalizing units.