A Cashless Lifestyle Is Growing Dramatically In the U.S.

Lorimer Wilson November 26, 2022 Comments Off 1,433 Views

Fewer Americans are making purchases with cold hard cash, and people with higher incomes are especially likely to embrace the fully “cashless” lifestyle according to a new report by the Pew Research Center.…In less than a decade, the share of Americans who go “cashless” in a typical week has increased by double digits and, according to another poll, from Gallup, the shift is driven by the rise of online shopping, increases in the number of businesses accepting non-cash payments and the adoption of tap-to-pay smartphone purchase methods like Apple Pay and Google Pay.

…Americans with lower incomes continue to be more reliant on cash than those who are more affluent…

A chart showing that the share of Americans with household incomes of $100K or more who say they don’t use cash for any typical weekly purchases has risen sharply since 2018.

There are also differences by race and ethnicity in cash usage. Roughly a quarter of Black adults (26%) and 21% of Hispanic adults say that all or almost all of their purchases in a typical week are paid for using cash, compared with 12% of White adults who say the same…

Even though cash is playing less of role in people’s weekly purchases, the survey also finds that a majority of Americans do try to have cash on hand and, as was true in previous surveys, Americans’ habits related to carrying cash vary by age…

A chart showing that about six-in-ten Americans say they always try to have cash on hand, but this varies widely by age.

Cash payments accounted for 20% of purchases in 2021, down from 26% in 2019. The Fed says cash use dropped significantly from 2019 to 2020 due to the onset of the pandemic, and then in 2021, cash use was up slightly from 2020…

Americans expect that the shift away from cash purchasing will continue. Gallup reports that 64% of U.S. adults say it’s likely the U.S. will become a cashless society in their lifetimes. If that were to happen, 45% of people say they would be upset, 9% would be happy, and the rest are indifferent.

The above article by Lorimer Wilson, Managing Editor of munKNEE.com, is an edited ([ ]), abridged […], retitled, restructured, reformatted, highlighted and grammatically corrected version of an article by Pete Grieve for the sake of brevity and clarity to ensure a fast and easy read.