YouGov and the Impact of COVID on Cash

YouGov have carried out a survey in 21 countries asking about payments in the pandemic, which provides an interesting snapshot on the relative impact of COVID-19 on cash usage around the world.

Unsurprisingly there has been a widespread decline in people saying they had used cash less often, although 16% said their usage had increased, but the detail in the survey may indicate how vulnerable cash is to a ‘shock’ reduction in usage once we have learned to live with COVID-19. 

11 countries surveyed were in Asia, a region that has already started to use less cash and with established alternatives available. The UAE was the only Middle Eastern country in the survey, a heavy cash user but with good cashless infrastructure. Seven countries were in Europe, which, along with Canada, already have the infrastructure in place to move to less cash. Amongst those European countries, Germany, France and Spain were heavy cash users before the pandemic. The US is an outlier in terms of being advanced but not having the infrastructure in place before the pandemic for contactless payments.