Partial Data on Declining Cash Payments in Europe

Finance.ua, a Ukrainian financial media organisation, posted cash usage rates for Europe in 2019 based on Statista data and then compared it with a smaller selection of countries in 2020 and then 2021.

2019 data

2019 data for 40 countries in Europe showed five groups of countries, with the Scandinavian countries using the least cash.

Ten countries followed with less than 40% cash payments, along with France, the UK and Russia, some of the smaller northern European countries, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland, and Portugal.

Those using cash for less than 50% of payments were Estonia, Malta, Belarus, Poland, Turkey, Lithuania and Ukraine.

Those using cash for more than 50% but less than 70% of payments were Latvia, Spain, Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic, Germany, Slovenia, Cyprus and Hungary.

The really heavy users of cash, more than 70%, tended to be southern or eastern Europeans and former members of Yugoslavia - Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia - along with Slovakia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania.

2020 data

Between 2019 and 2020 Finland bucked the trend. It was the only country which increased the number of cash payments, which rose to 24%. It is unclear why this happened when the other Scandinavian countries saw cash decline even further.

Outside of Scandinavia some of the previously big cash users saw significant falls, particularly Italy and the Czech Republic. One could argue that the UK and the Netherlands were already on a path to less cash and so their reductions were an acceleration of a well- established trend.

Austria, Germany and Bulgaria saw double digit reductions, but cash remained at over 50% of payments.

2021 data

2021 saw the Czech Republic fall significantly, twice as much as in 2020, and leaving it only just in double digits. The UK’s reduction, while smaller at 10.6% was from a low base, meaning that it ended up alongside the Czech Republic.

Final word

This snapshot of cash usage is interesting but not conclusive, particularly since the reasons for the reductions are not explored. The downward trend is virtually universal and, even outside of Scandinavia, the reductions are double digit, even in heavy cash using countries such as Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy and Austria.

Much more data is needed, of course, but the evidence and sense of change is clear.