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In the USA, cash is used for 49% of payments under $10 (Federal Reserve, 2019)

Jul 22, 2019

The statistic comes from the Federal Reserve's 2019 Findings on the 5th Diary of Consumer Payments Choice survey, published in June 2019.

According to the survey findings, cash is used for 49% of payments under $10 in the United States of America.

The 2019 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice (Diary) highlights findings from the fifth Diary study conducted by the Federal Reserve. A demographically-representative sample of 2,873 individuals participated in the study and reported all of their payments and transactions over three consecutive days, staggered throughout October 2018.

Key findings include

People used cash in 26% of transactions, down from 30% in 2017.
Debit cards were the most used instrument, used for 28% of all consumer payments.
Cash was used heavily for small-value payments, representing 49% of payments under $10.
The share of cash use among individuals under 25 years old is the highest of any age group.
In-person payments accounted for 73% of all transactions. Participants used cash for 35% of in-person payments.