These Countries Used The Most Cash In 2025

Did you know that entire economies still run on cash, pretty much day to day?

This infographic, via Visual Capitalist’s Pallavi Rao, ranks 123 countries by the share of daily transactions completed with physical banknotes and coins, spotlighting where cash is still king, and where it’s becoming a relic.

The data for this visualization comes from Forex.se.

Poverty and Limited Banking Fuel Cash Dependence

Myanmar tops the ranking at 98% cash usage, followed closely by Ethiopia and Gambia at 95% each.

Rank	Country	ISO Code	Share of daily transactions in cash
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%
12	Cuba	CUB	85%
13	Mongolia	MNG	85%
14	Egypt	EGY	80%
15	Fiji	FJI	80%
16	Gabon	GAB	80%
17	Jamaica	JAM	80%
18	Jordan	JOR	80%
19	Mexico	MEX	80%
20	Moldova	MDA	80%
21	Sri Lanka	LKA	80%
22	Tanzania	TZA	75%
23	Trinidad & Tobago	TTO	75%
24	Argentina	ARG	70%
25	Colombia	COL	70%
26	Haiti	HTI	70%
27	India	IND	70%
28	Indonesia	IDN	70%
29	Madagascar	MDG	70%
30	The Maldives	MDV	70%
31	Ukraine	UKR	70%
32	Vietnam	VNM	70%
33	Nicaragua	NIC	69%
34	Malta	MLT	67%
35	Mali	MLI	65%
36	Morocco	MAR	65%
37	Serbia	SRB	65%
38	Thailand	THA	65%
39	Italy	ITA	62%
40	South Africa	ZAF	62%
41	Austria	AUT	61%
42	Azerbaijan	AZE	60%
43	Bosnia & Herzegovina	BIH	60%
44	Chile	CHL	60%
45	Dominican Republic	DOM	60%
46	Japan	JPN	60%
47	Cape Verde	CPV	60%
48	Kosovo	XKX	60%
49	Peru	PER	60%
50	Venezuela	VEN	60%
51	Slovakia	SVK	57%
52	Slovenia	SVN	57%
53	Spain	ESP	57%
54	Belize	BLZ	55%
55	Greece	GRC	55%
56	Namibia	NAM	55%
57	North Macedonia	MKD	55%
58	San Marino	SMR	55%
59	Tunisia	TUN	55%
60	Hungary	HUN	55%
61	Germany	DEU	51%
62	Bahamas	BHS	50%
63	Barbados	BRB	50%
64	Bermuda	BMU	50%
65	Botswana	BWA	50%
66	Bulgaria	BGR	50%
67	Cayman Islands	CYM	50%
68	Cyprus	CYP	50%
69	Croatia	HRV	50%
70	Lithuania	LTU	50%
71	Mauritius	MUS	50%
72	Montenegro	MNE	50%
73	Oman	OMN	50%
74	Portugal	PRT	50%
75	Seychelles	SYC	50%
76	Belgium	BEL	47%
77	Ireland	IRL	45%
78	Poland	POL	45%
79	Philippines	PHL	44%
80	Costa Rica	CRI	40%
81	Ecuador	ECU	40%
82	France	FRA	40%
83	Kenya	KEN	40%
84	Latvia	LVA	40%
85	Turkey	TUR	40%
86	Malaysia	MYS	32%
87	Estonia	EST	30%
88	Georgia	GEO	30%
89	Kuwait	KWT	30%
90	Luxembourg	LUX	30%
91	Panama	PAN	30%
92	Saint Vincent & the Grenadines	VCT	30%
93	Saudi Arabia	SAU	30%
94	Switzerland	CHE	30%
95	Taiwan	TWN	30%
96	Czech Republic	CZE	30%
97	Uruguay	URY	30%
98	Finland	FIN	27%
99	Qatar	QAT	25%
100	Brazil	BRA	22%
101	Andorra	AND	20%
102	Bahrain	BHR	20%
103	Brunei	BRN	20%
104	UAE	ARE	20%
105	Hong Kong	HKG	20%
106	Monaco	MCO	20%
107	The Netherlands	NLD	20%
108	Romania	ROU	20%
109	Singapore	SGP	20%
110	U.S.	USA	16%
111	Israel	ISR	15%
112	Canada	CAN	15%
113	New Zealand	NZL	15%
114	Sweden	SWE	14%
115	Denmark	DNK	12%
116	England	N/A	12%
117	Scotland	N/A	12%
118	Australia	AUS	10%
119	Iceland	ISL	10%
120	China	CHN	10%
121	Norway	NOR	10%
122	South Korea	KOR	10%

Note: The FOREX Cash Index aggregates data from Statista, Numbeo, and other global reports, along with annual publications from central and national banks. The reported figure is an approximate average derived from sources including Cash Essentials, G4S, Euro Monitor, the World Bank, Statrys, and the Federal Reserve.

In these countries, a large share of the population remains unbanked, internet penetration is low, and merchants cannot afford card terminals.

Consequently, physical currency provides the simplest, cheapest, and most trusted medium of exchange, even if it limits consumers’ ability to save securely or access credit.

Generally speaking, cash remains virtually ubiquitous in lower-income nations and starts to drop as a country’s economy develops.

Even middle-income countries see high usage, Cambodia, Laos, and Nepal all post 90% cash usage, while neighboring India manages to bring it down to 70% thanks to its government-backed Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

 Related: See how economic development correlate with cash use by looking at this map categorizing countries by income groups.

Countries That Are Cashless

At the opposite end of the spectrum, advanced economies with mature fintech ecosystems are rapidly phasing out bills and coins.

Norway and South Korea sit at 10%, the lowest amongst the lot, with the the U.S. at 16%.

Universal broadband, high smartphone penetration, and robust consumer protection frameworks give shoppers confidence to go fully digital.

Meanwhile, merchants benefit from faster settlement and reduced security risks.

Countries That Are Outliers in Cash Use

Japan at 60% is remarkably high for such a technologically advanced nation, helped by more use in rural areas.

Similarly, Germany at 51% is an anomaly among wealthy European nations, but this may be more due to privacy reasons and mistrust in big banking institutions.

On the other hand, upper-middle-income China at just 10% reflecting its leapfrog to mobile payments (Alipay/WeChat Pay), bypassing traditional card infrastructure entirely.

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out The 25 Richest Countries in the World in Three Metrics on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.