Canadians Carrying More Cash, Says Bank of Canada

Money is removed from a bank machine in a photo illustration in Montreal, on May 30, 2016. The Canadian Press/Ryan Remiorz

Canadians are opting to carry more cash in their wallets despite the growing prevalence of digital transactions, a new survey from the Bank of Canada suggests.

A recent report published by the central bank on 2024 payment methods found that Canadians kept an average of $156 in cash in their pockets, compared to $140 in 2023.

“About 80 percent of Canadians had some cash on hand in 2024,” the Bank of Canada said. “This share has been fairly consistent since 2022, stabilizing at a level higher than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Canadians are more likely to carry cash now than they were in the years just prior to the pandemic, when the use of cash was steadily declining, the report found, noting a marked difference between Canada and the United States, which has seen continued annual declines in the use of cash.

While cash use in Canada has also decreased over the long term, it is still used on a regular basis, the bank said. It accounted for 21 percent of all transactions in 2024, representing 11 percent of the total purchase value.

Seventy-nine percent of Canadians indicated they had no intention of going cashless in 2024, while 8 percent said they would eventually transition away from using money, the survey found. Thirteen percent reported they were already operating without cash.

Cash was the third-ranked method of payment at the point of sale, behind credit and debit as it has been in every bank survey since 2020. The 2024 poll found that Canadians use cash for roughly one out of every five purchases.

Cash Use ‘Stable’

When adjusted for inflation, the amount of cash on hand has remained relatively “stable” since 2017, despite minor fluctuations during the COVID-19 pandemic, the survey found, noting that customers are not only using ATMs and bank branches more often, they are also taking more cash out per withdrawal.

Canadians also appear to favour smaller denominations of $5, $10, or $20 rather than carrying $50 and $100 bills in their wallets, purses, or pockets, the bank noted.

Survey respondents who were 55 or older were most likely to carry cash, at 86.8 percent, surpassing all other age demographics by more than 10 percentage points. Yet it the youngest group surveyed, individuals aged 18 to 34, who carried the most in their pockets—an average of $206.

Men were more likely to use cash than women, who tend to favour credit cards when making purchases, the survey found. Men also carry larger amounts of cash and make more and larger withdrawals.

People within the lowest income bracket typically had the least cash on hand, but they were the most likely to use cash for transactions, the survey found.

Credit cards, debit cards, and cash may be the top three payment methods favoured by Canadians, but mobile payments via smartphone applications are steadily gaining popularity.

Mobile transactions accounted for nearly 5 percent of total purchases in 2024, marking an increase of a couple of percentage points from the year before.

Should these trends maintain their momentum as younger consumers lean towards digital wallets rather than physical alternatives, that could lower the demand for cash, the bank said.

The survey was conducted in collaboration with Ipsos and polled more than 4,000 individuals from mid-October to mid-November last year.