Where Cash Still Rules the Checkout: A Global Look at Day-to-Day Transactions in 2025

Digital wallets and contactless cards dominate headlines, but a quiet truth remains: in much of the world, the crinkle of banknotes is still the soundtrack of everyday commerce. An expansive new visualization ranks 123 countries by the share of daily transactions completed using physical cash—and the results reveal a world divided by access, trust, and infrastructure as much as by technology.

The data, aggregated in the FOREX Cash Index (Forex.se) from sources including Statista, Numbeo, Cash Essentials, G4S, Euro Monitor, the World Bank, Statrys, and the U.S. Federal Reserve, provide an approximate average of cash’s role in point-of-sale payments such as groceries, small retail, and restaurants. While figures are estimates, the patterns are unmistakable: cash remains virtually ubiquitous in lower-income economies and declines as countries become wealthier and more digitally connected.

The High-Cash End: When Notes and Coins Are Everyday Necessities

At the very top of the ranking sits Myanmar at 98% cash usage, where physical currency is the medium that works reliably for nearly everyone. Close behind are Ethiopia and The Gambia at 95% each. Rounding out the top group are countries such as Albania, Cambodia, Laos, Lebanon, Nepal, and Pakistan—all around 90%—followed by Iraq and Iran at 85%.

Why does cash remain king in these markets?

1. Financial Exclusion: Large portions of the population are unbanked or underbanked. Without bank accounts, debit cards, or credit histories, cash is the only universal instrument of exchange.
2. Limited Digital Rails: Internet penetration can be patchy, data costs high, and power reliability inconsistent. That makes digital payments frustrating for merchants and risky for consumers who can’t count on always-on connectivity.
3. Merchant Realities: Small shopkeepers and market vendors often cannot afford card terminals, and interchange fees eat thin margins. Counting cash at day’s end may be slower, but it’s certain and fee-free.
4. Trust and Familiarity: In environments where institutions feel distant or volatile, cash equals control. People can see it, count it, store it, and spend it without third-party approval.
5. Informal Economies: A larger cash-based informal sector—from street vending to microservices—naturally reinforces cash as the default.

This set of conditions forms a reinforcing loop: low account penetration discourages digital acceptance; limited acceptance discourages opening accounts. Cash endures not because it is modern, but because it is practical, cheap, and universal.

Middle-Income Realities: Cash Is Sticky, Even as Digital Grows

Even in middle-income countries, cash use can remain conspicuously high. Cambodia, Laos, and Nepal each post around 90% cash transactions. Yet India—a large middle-income outlier—comes in near 70%, a notable reduction credited to policy. The country’s government-backed Unified Payments Interface (UPI) turned smartphones into interoperable payment devices for both consumers and micro-merchants, bringing instant bank-to-bank transfers to the masses, and creating strong network effects at low cost.

India’s experience underscores a critical point: cash share is not destiny. When policy and product design reduce friction for merchants and consumers simultaneously, behavior can shift quickly—even in cash-entrenched markets.

The Low-Cash End: Where Digital Confidence Is the Default

On the other side are economies where cash is rapidly becoming a relic of everyday transactions. Norway and South Korea sit around 10%—the lowest shares in the dataset—joined by China also near 10%, and the United States at about 16%.

These markets share several enabling factors:

• Near-universal broadband and high smartphone penetration
• Robust consumer protection and strong dispute-resolution norms
• Low-friction merchant acceptance, with fast settlement and declining fees
• Mature fintech ecosystems and interoperable rails that make paying digitally faster than cash

Merchants in these environments enjoy speed, safety, and data—faster checkouts, less theft risk, and richer analytics. Consumers, meanwhile, lean on convenience (tap-to-pay, QR codes), rewards, and integrated services (transit, e-commerce, subscriptions).

Outliers That Tell a Story

Not all countries line up exactly as development theory predicts, and those outliers are instructive:

• Japan (~60%): A technologically advanced nation where cultural preferences, demographics, and rural cash habits keep notes and coins relevant. Many older consumers prefer cash, and small merchants often post cash-friendly prices.
• Germany (~51%): One of Europe’s most prosperous economies, yet cash use remains high compared to neighbors. Privacy concerns and deep cultural skepticism toward large financial institutions help cash endure, especially for day-to-day spending.
• China (~10%): A leapfrog case where Alipay and WeChat Pay moved consumers from cash straight to mobile wallets, bypassing legacy card infrastructure. Massive QR code acceptance, super-app convenience, and merchant adoption pushed cash to the margins with startling speed.

These cases remind us that policy, culture, and market design can overpower linear assumptions about income levels and payment behavior.

What Keeps Cash Sticky?

Across markets with high cash usage, several practical frictions inhibit digital migration:

1. Cost to Accept: For the smallest merchants, even subsidized terminals or QR solutions may feel complex. If settlement is slow or fees bite, they’ll default to cash.
2. Liquidity and Timing: Daily cash turnover helps merchants restock inventory immediately. Waiting even a day for digital settlement can crimp working capital.
3. Identity and Compliance Barriers: KYC/AML requirements, while necessary, can be intimidating or inconvenient for customers lacking formal IDs or addresses.
4. User Experience Gaps: Apps that are heavy, glitchy, or data-hungry won’t beat a crumpled bill that always works.
5. Trust: In places with historical bank failures, inflation scares, or fraud incidents, holding cash feels safer than trusting balances on a screen.

What Accelerates Cashless?

Where cash’s share falls, the playbook often includes:

• Interoperable, instant rails (like India’s UPI) that support many providers and keep switching costs low.
• Merchant-first design with free or near-free acceptance, instant settlement options, and QR-based acceptance that needs no hardware.
• Consumer incentives (rewards, transit integration, bill-pay convenience) and social features (P2P splits).
• Strong guardrails: clear liability rules, fast dispute resolution, and high fraud detection.
• Public-private collaboration to push standards, digital ID, and inclusive on-ramps.

Special Focus: The Caribbean Islands

The Caribbean offers a particularly revealing microcosm of the world’s payment transition. The region features small, open economies, high tourism flows, significant remittances, and a wide spectrum of digital readiness. Cash is deeply embedded—but the direction of travel is changing.

The Cash Reality Today

From the infographic’s rankings, several Caribbean markets remain cash-forward:

• Jamaica is shown in a high-cash band (around ~80%), reflecting a large informal sector, lower card acceptance among micro-merchants, and persistent financial exclusion—despite meaningful progress in mobile and fintech solutions.
• Trinidad and Tobago appears around ~75%, where cash remains convenient for day-to-day spending, especially outside formal retail channels.
• Haiti (near ~70%) relies heavily on cash given structural barriers, limited banking penetration, and income constraints.
• Dominican Republic sits around the low-to-mid 60s in the visualization—still cash heavy, yet with visible growth in card and wallet acceptance in urban and tourist corridors.
• Barbados and The Bahamas cluster closer to ~50% in the chart’s mid-range, suggesting more balanced mixes of cash, cards, and digital wallets—particularly in tourism hubs and formal retail.

Why cash persists:
Caribbean merchants prize the certainty of cash in a region where settlement timing, cross-border fees, and chargebacks can feel onerous. Hurricanes and power outages also underscore cash’s resilience as a backup medium. Meanwhile, remittances—a lifeline for many households—are often received in cash, even if sent digitally.

Islands of Innovation

Despite the cash footprint, the Caribbean is also a testbed for innovation:

• The Bahamas’ “Sand Dollar”—one of the world’s earliest central bank digital currencies (CBDCs)—aims to offer a safe, inclusive digital alternative that works across islands and in times of disruption.
• Jamaica’s JAM-DEX (central bank digital currency) targets financial inclusion, seeking to give every citizen a fee-free, interoperable way to pay and be paid, including for government services and benefits.
• Trinidad and Tobago has longstanding domestic debit schemes and QR acceptance pilots, while Barbados and Dominican Republic have seen contactless cards and wallets spread within formal retail and transit.
• Tourism corridors (resorts, cruise terminals, duty-free zones) catalyze card acceptance and tap-to-pay, creating dual economies: cash-heavy local commerce alongside highly digitized tourist spend.

What Will Move the Needle?

For Caribbean policymakers and businesses, the goal is choice with inclusion—not a war on cash. Based on regional realities, the highest-impact steps include:

1. Merchant-Centric Acceptance
   • Scale QR and softPOS solutions that run on standard smartphones so micro-merchants don’t need terminals.
   • Offer same-day or instant settlement to preserve working capital.
   • Keep fees transparent and low, with tiered structures for nano-businesses.
2. Remittance Digitization
   • Encourage wallet-to-wallet transfers from overseas, so funds arrive spendable in local digital form.
   • Incentivize cash-out alternatives (bill pay, transit, government fees, school payments) to reduce the need to convert to banknotes.
3. Government as Anchor User
   • Digitize G2P (government-to-person) transfers, tax refunds, license fees, and school payments, giving citizens practical reasons to keep value in digital form.
4. Resilience by Design
   • Offline-capable digital payments (e.g., CBDCs with limited offline functionality) are crucial in hurricane-prone islands.
   • Promote backup power for point-of-sale and telecom sites to maintain transaction continuity.
5. Trust and Consumer Protection
   • Clear, visible rules on fraud liability, chargeback timelines, and data privacy build confidence.
   • Public education on scam awareness and strong authentication is essential.
6. Interoperability & Cross-Border Friction
   • Encourage regional standards so wallets and cards work across islands.
   • Reduce pain in cross-border transactions—from remittances to supplier payments—so digital feels easier than cash.

In short, the Caribbean is poised to blend resilience with innovation: cash will stay relevant (especially as a contingency), but fast, inclusive, offline-tolerant digital systems can win the everyday race when they become cheaper and simpler than cash for both sides of the counter.

The U.S., Europe, and East Asia: Different Roads to Less Cash

• United States (~16%): A sprawling card ecosystem, tap-to-pay growth, massive e-commerce, and P2P services (e.g., Zelle, Cash App) push cash down. Yet tips, small independent merchants, and rural pockets keep it in play.
• Nordics (e.g., Norway, Sweden): A high-trust culture, near-universal banking, and effective digital ID infrastructure accelerated cash’s decline. Some shops even refuse cash, sparking debates about inclusion and legal tender.
• South Korea (~10%): A technology-saturated society where QR and contactless are ubiquitous and public transit systems integrate payments seamlessly.
• Europe’s Split Personality: Countries like Germany remain cash-friendly, while neighbors—Netherlands, the Nordics—are largely cashless. The difference often boils down to privacy norms, merchant pricing, and historical experiences with finance.
• China (~10%): The QR revolution built on super-apps made it easier to live a cash-free life than a cash-heavy one, particularly in cities. Street vendors take mobile payments as readily as malls.

Five Myths About Cash—Debunked

1. “Cash only persists where people don’t know better.”
   Reality: People choose what works reliably. If digital rails are costly, slow, or fragile, cash wins.
2. “Going cashless is always cheaper.”
   Reality: For micro-merchants, fees and settlement delays can outweigh digital benefits unless policy or providers bridge the gap.
3. “Cash will disappear in a few years.”
   Reality: Even in ultra-digital markets, cash plays a resilience role during outages, disasters, or edge cases.
4. “Security is purely a digital advantage.”
   Reality: Digital systems reduce robbery risk but increase cyber and fraud risk. Good design and clear liability rules are non-negotiable.
5. “One model fits all.”
   Reality: Cultural preferences, legal frameworks, and market structures create radically different payment equilibria.

Policy and Business Playbook: Turning Choice into Inclusion

A thoughtful roadmap blends market incentives with public infrastructure:

• Digital ID & e-KYC: Make onboarding fast and low-cost for citizens and migrants alike.
• Open, Instant Payment Rails: Promote interoperability and competition so no single wallet or network dominates.
• Tiered KYC for Low-Value Wallets: Allow small balances with simpler requirements to bring informal workers and youth into the system safely.
• Merchant Enablement at Scale: Subsidize or tax-incent merchant adoption of softPOS/QR, prioritizing micro-retail and service providers.
• Consumer Protection: Codify refund windows, dispute processes, and data protections to grow trust.
• Public Acceptance Mandates (with Exceptions): Encourage but do not force cashless; maintain cash acceptance in critical services to avoid exclusion.
• Financial Literacy: Pair tech rollout with practical education about budgeting, credit, and fraud avoidance.

Looking Ahead: Cash’s Future in a Hybrid World

By 2030, expect the global payments landscape to be hybrid:

• Cash will remain essential in many low-income and rural settings, and as a backup even in advanced economies.
• Wallet-first ecosystems will expand, especially where QR acceptance and instant rails undercut the cost of cards.
• CBDCs will progress unevenly, but in small island states and disaster-prone regions they may prove their worth via offline capability and resilience.
• Cross-border interoperability—for remittances, tourism, and trade—will become a frontline issue, particularly in regions like the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, and parts of Africa.

The great payment transition isn’t a straight line from coins to code. It’s a series of local optimizations, guided by what works for people and businesses living real lives in real places.

Snapshot of the Highest-Cash Economies (from the visualization)

Based on the infographic’s displayed ranking (top items shown):

1. Myanmar (MMR) — 98%
2. Ethiopia (ETH) — 95%
3. The Gambia (GMB) — 95%
4. Albania (ALB) — 90%
5. Cambodia (KHM) — 90%
6. Laos (LAO) — 90%
7. Lebanon (LBN) — 90%
8. Nepal (NPL) — 90%
9. Pakistan (PAK) — 90%
10. Iraq (IRQ) — 85%
11. Iran (IRN) — 85%

Note: The FOREX Cash Index combines multiple public and institutional sources and represents approximate averages of cash shares in everyday transactions. Figures are best read directionally rather than as precise point estimates.

What This Means for Consumers and Businesses

• Consumers should expect more choice, with cash and digital coexisting. Where digital is offered, compare options on fees, refunds, and fraud protection.
• Small businesses can benefit from hybrid acceptance: encourage digital for speed and safety while maintaining cash for resilience and customer preference.
• Policymakers should measure success not by eliminating cash but by maximizing inclusion—ensuring that every citizen and merchant can participate, safely and affordably, in the economy.

Final Word

The picture painted by this global ranking is nuanced. Cash is not dying—it’s adapting. In some places, it’s receding into a niche; in others, it remains the everyday standard. The determinants are as much about infrastructure, trust, and design as about income. For the Caribbean islands, the path forward is clear: pair the resilience of cash with the convenience of inclusive, low-cost digital rails, tuned to the realities of tourism, remittances, and island resilience.

When digital becomes as easy and reliable as cash, people switch. Until then, the world—especially much of the Global South—will keep a hand in its pocket, where a few trusted banknotes can still do the job.

Sources: Visualization inspired by Visual Capitalist’s “Where People Still Use Cash” (2025). Data compiled in the FOREX Cash Index (Forex.se) from Statista, Numbeo, Cash Essentials, G4S, Euro Monitor, the World Bank, Statrys, and the U.S. Federal Reserve. Figures are estimates of the share of daily transactions in cash and should be interpreted directionally.

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