Eurozone citizens still use cash in majority of transactions

The European Central Bank says cash use has declined in the eurozone in the past three years. However, 59% of transactions were still in cash in 2022.

According to findings from the 2022 Space (Study of the Payment Attitudes of Consumers in Europe) survey, released on December 20, 34% of point-of-sale payments were made with cards. Three per cent of transactions were conducted through mobile apps.

Both the cash and card figures are a sharp change since the 2016 and 2019 Space surveys. In 2016, 79% of point-of-sale transactions were in cash, and 19% in cards. In 2019, the figures were 72% and 25%, respectively.

Card payments exceeded cash measured in value terms – 46% to 42% – the first time this had happened in the Space survey.

However, payment patterns varied widely across the euro bloc. In three countries – Finland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands – the majority of transactions were done by card. In Finland, 70% of transactions were by card, versus 19% in cash. At the other extreme, Malta reported that 77% of payments were made in cash.

Covid-19 had a limited impact on how people paid, with 54% saying they did not change their payment method because of the pandemic.

The vast majority of respondents – 89% – said it was very or fairly easy to access cash. Ninety-four per cent of respondents said they had access to a payment card.

For the first time, the survey introduced questions on cryptocurrency holdings, finding that 4% of people in the eurozone countries surveyed held crypto. Slovenia and Luxembourg reported the highest figures for crypto holdings, at 8%. A large majority hold these as investment assets.

Central Banking’s Currency Benchmarks 2022 reported that an average of 42.5% of transactions across 17 jurisdictions were cash transactions in 2021.