Money and payments
The euro area holds more cash relative to its economy than the US and China, but uses it less and less to pay. Cards are filling the gap, largely through non-European networks. The digital euro is the EU's bet to keep public money present in electronic payments.
Between two giants
The euro area has more cash than the US and China relative to its GDP. In electronic payments, the US is ahead and China has grown the fastest.
In 2024, euro banknotes and coins were worth 10.7% of euro area GDP. In China, 9.9%, and in the US, 7.9%. All three rose in 2020, with the pandemic, and the euro area reached 12.6%. Since then cash has weighed less in the euro area and the US, while in China it has grown again since 2021.
The euro area holds more cash relative to its economy than China and the US: 10.7% of its GDP
Banknotes and coins in circulation, as % of GDP
Loading the chart
Holding a lot of cash does not mean using it to pay: part of it is kept as savings and part circulates abroad. Electronic payments tell a different story. In 2024, the US made 644 cashless payments per person, and China 402, almost 28 times as many as in 2012. The BIS does not publish an EU figure, but it does for seven EU countries. Sweden (685) is ahead of the US; Belgium, France and Germany sit between the US and China, and Spain (364) and Italy (247) are below China.
Sweden makes more cashless payments per person than the US; China has multiplied them by almost 28 since 2012
Cashless payments (cards, credit transfers, direct debits, e-money and cheques) per person per year
Loading the chart
The two giants have chosen opposite paths for digital money. China has been testing its digital yuan, the e-CNY, issued by its central bank, since the end of 2019. The US has gone the other way: in January 2025 an executive order barred federal agencies from creating or promoting a digital dollar, and in July 2025 the GENIUS Act regulated stablecoins, private digital coins backed by dollar assets.
Is Europe losing, or choosing?
Europeans pay less and less in cash, but do not want to lose it. The digital euro is the EU's answer: public money to pay with a phone.
In 2016, 79% of payments in shops, bars and other businesses in the euro area were made in cash. In 2024, 52%. 55% of consumers now prefer to pay by card or another cashless method, against 22% who prefer notes and coins. Even so, 62% consider it important to keep being able to pay in cash.
Cash has fallen from 79% to 52% of in-store payments since 2016; 55% now prefer cards
Euro area. Share of payments in shops, bars and other points of sale made in cash, and consumers' preferred means of payment, in %
Loading the chart
Cards are filling most of the gap left by cash. In 2025, the euro area made almost 92 billion card payments, 57% of all cashless payments and 36% more than in 2022. That is what worries the ECB: in 2022, 61% of euro area card payments went through international networks such as Visa or Mastercard, and 13 euro area countries rely on them entirely.
Cards account for 57% of cashless payments in the euro area
Euro area. Number of transactions per year by payment instrument, in billions
Loading the chart
The digital euro aims to be a European, public alternative: money issued by the ECB, like banknotes, but for paying in shops, online and offline too. Basic services would be free and there would be a cap on how much each person can hold. What is missing is the law. Parliament and Council are negotiating mainly how banks and payment firms that distribute it are compensated, how distribution works and where that cap lies. Privacy is the other big question: 60% of euro area consumers say they are concerned about their privacy in digital payments.
- June 2023The European Commission proposes the digital euro regulation.
- October 2025The ECB moves the project to its next phase to be technically ready.
- December 2025EU governments, in the Council, agree their position: holding limits, free basic services and regulated fees.
- June and July 2026The European Parliament's Economic Affairs Committee adopts its report (43 votes in favour, 14 against and 1 abstention) and the plenary gives the go-ahead to negotiate with the Council.
- Second half of 202712-month pilot with payment providers, if the law is adopted in 2026.
- 2029Earliest possible issuance. The ECB will decide whether and when to issue it once the law is adopted.
Europe from within
Cards are gaining ground in every country, but at very different speeds. Cash is retreating more slowly.
In 2025, Finland made 456 card payments per person; the Netherlands, 376, and France, 320. Germany made 174, and Italy 162, among the lowest along with Romania (172) and Bulgaria (105). Spain, with 265, is exactly at the median of the 25 countries with data. Lithuania, Luxembourg and Ireland are above everyone, but their figures may reflect payment institutions based there with customers in other countries. Between 2022 and 2025, card payments per person rose in all 24 countries with data for both years, from 13% in the Netherlands to 92% in Romania.
Card payments per person rose in all 24 countries with data for 2022 and 2025; Germany and Italy are still among those using them least
Card payments per person per year
Loading the chart
Cash withdrawals with cards fell in 20 of the 21 countries with data for 2022 and 2025; in Romania they barely changed. The biggest drop was in Estonia, 28%. People withdraw cash with cards most often in Portugal, 30.6 times per person a year, and least often in Hungary (8.6), Finland (9.1) and the Netherlands (9.3). In Spain, 13.5 times, almost the same as in 2022 (13.6).
Cash withdrawals with cards fell in 20 of the 21 countries with data for 2022 and 2025
Cash withdrawals with cards per person per year, 2022 and 2025
Loading the chart
Sources for the text
- Parlamento Europeo, Legislative Train: Digital euro (actualizado el 20 de septiembre de 2026)
- BCE, El Eurosistema pasa a la siguiente fase del proyecto del euro digital (30 de octubre de 2025)
- Consejo de la UE, posición sobre el euro digital y el papel del efectivo (diciembre de 2025)
- BCE, informe sobre sistemas y procesadores de tarjetas (28 de febrero de 2025)
- BCE, estadísticas de pagos del segundo semestre de 2025
- BCE, estudio SPACE 2024 sobre las actitudes de pago de los consumidores
- Banco Popular de China, Progress of Research and Development of E-CNY in China (julio de 2021)
- Casa Blanca, orden ejecutiva 14178 sobre tecnología financiera digital (23 de enero de 2025)
- Congreso de EE. UU., ley GENIUS sobre stablecoins (S. 1582, firmada el 18 de julio de 2025)
Other themes
- AI and digitalThe EU is adopting artificial intelligence faster than ever, but almost all the technology it uses is designed elsewhere.
- Trade and dependenciesFor decades the EU was the world's largest trading power. China has overtaken it, and Europe increasingly depends on others to buy and to sell.
- Productivity and growthThe EU weighs as much in the world economy as the United States, but it produces less per hour and much less per person. The question is how much of that gap is lagging behind and how much is choice.
- Freedoms, well-being and climateEurope lives longer, pollutes less and protects freedoms more than the United States or China. But those advantages are not equal across its countries, and some are eroding.
- HealthThe EU spends far less on health than the US, and people live longer. Most of it is paid with public money, but each country differs in how many doctors it has and how much patients pay themselves.
- Housing and the cost of livingHousing has risen less in the euro area than in the US, and so have rents. Almost seven in ten Europeans live in a home they own, but those renting at market prices bear far higher costs, and the gaps between countries in cost and space are huge.
- EnergyThe EU uses less than half as much energy per person as the US, and China has now overtaken it. Its electricity relies far less on fossil fuels, but renewables cover only a quarter of all its energy, and industry pays considerably more for power than before the 2022 crisis.