Cash Cash Money
Have you moved away from cash yet?
With inflation surging around the world, the value of our cash seems to be reducing by the day. But we’re also in a world where cash is becoming less and less common
But how much is this move away from cash a western trend, or happening globally?
There is 180 currencies regarded as legal tender in the world today, according to the UN
Units of exchange have been in use for Millenia with coins first being recorded c. 2,500 years ago at similar times in modern day Turkey, India, China, Greece and Italy
Paper money wasn’t introduced until the 11th Century during the Song Dynasty in China. The first European equivalent was introduced by Stockholm’s Banco (pre-cursor to the Bank of Sweden) in 1661
How much is cash used nowadays?
Today, the currency with the largest value in circulation¹ is the US dollar ($) at $1.98 trillion. This is followed by:
- Euro (€) - $1.38 trillion worth
- Chinese Yuan (¥) - $1.15 trillion worth
- Japanese Yen (¥) - $1 trillion
- Indian Rupee (₹) - $425 billion
These figures predominantly include cash in the economy, although will also include cash which is held abroad such as foreign reserves and travelers cheques
The proportion of currency held abroad is generally increasing with $12.92 trillion worth of all currencies held by foreign governments and monetary authorities (i.e. central banks) around the world in 2021, an increase on $1.94 trillion in 2000
And cash is only a portion of the overall money supply. For example, in the UK:
- narrow money (also known as M0) totals £95 billion, including all coins and notes in circulation, plus bank deposits which are immediately available to the public
- broad money (also known as M4) includes narrow money and investments, savings and institutional money. The total value of this definition of money is c. £3 trillion
What about card and online payments?
Some economies are very dependent on cash, while others have moved more to debit and credit card payments in recent years
Back in 2016, 60% of all transactions in Europe were made in cash, although this hides a lot of variation with Malta making 92% of transactions in cash and Sweden only making 20% with banknotes
The UK at this time had 42% of transactions made in cash, but since have seen this reduce. For example, the number of cash withdrawals made reduced significantly from 70,000 in 2016 to 54,000 in 2020. By the same year, cash was used in 23% of transactions
Some economies have reduced their share of cash at much greater rates. Between 2010 and 2020, the percentage of transactions made with cash fell in:
- China from 99% to 41%
- South Korea from 66% to 34%
- United States from 51% to 28%
On top of this, Online payments have become a lot more common:
- AliPay and WeChat are the largest online payment providers globally (1.2 billion and 1.15 billion users, respectively)
- Apple Pay is the largest western online payments provider (507 million users), followed by PayPal (361 million)
Plus, there are many more ways to pay for goods and services today. There are approximately 4,000 cryptocurrencies in circulation today
And who has the highest value banknotes?
Some economies still have very large banknotes, although these are becoming less common because of issues associated with money laundering and organised crime. Some of the largest banknotes globally² are the:
- 10,000 Singaporean Dollars - worth $6,987
- 10,000 Brunei Dollars - worth $6,987
- 1,000 Swiss Francs- worth $1,018
- 500 Euros - worth $484.50
This is compared to only £50 ($54.28) as the highest value banknote in the UK
Although if you come across a UK banknote with “AK47” or “007” on the serial number, then you could get over a lot more at auction than the notes headline value
Check out some of our other GoodStats on Economics, Politics and Finance:
- How rich are the Russians? And the rest of the world, for that matter
- Boris, the Prime Minister who was ‘oven ready’… although his Ministers didn’t agree
Note¹: these figures, and the majority of others in this article, are at exchange rates from 2021 or earlier, which means they are not necessarily up-to-date for today’s FX prices
Note²: the value of large bank notes have been calculated in $ dollars as of 25th September 2022
Source: World Atlas; Statista; Victor Mochere; Nomad Capitalist; Payments Card and Mobile; Oldest; Merchant Machine; Statista; McKinsey; Take Profit; The Sun;
