Payment Method Trends: Canada Edition

Canadian national payments provider Payments Canada just released its Canadian Payment Methods and Trends report for the past year.

The report compares, among other things, the relative distribution of payments methods for the nation of over 35 million between 2011 and 2015. It has revealed some interesting insights into the changing payment landscape of our neighbors to the north.

Here are some of the key findings:

In 2015, the Canadian payments market saw a total of 20.9 billion transactions collectively worth over C$8.9 trillion ($6.59 trillion). Of those 20.9 billion transactions, cash continues to account for the most transactions by volume at 32.4 percent.

Since 2011, the use of checks decreased by 25 percent in terms of volume. Cash transaction and ATM withdrawal volumes both decreased 20 percent during this period.

However, its use is trending downward overall. Cash accounted for 41.8 percent of payments by volume in 2011 — a net decrease in volume of 20 percent.

Meanwhile, online transfers and contactless payments have soared in popularity — they are the fastest-growing payment methods in Canada. They reached an estimated 120 million transactions in 2015, worth C$45 billion ($33.3 billion).

In 2015, contactless payments grew by 70 percent in volume and value. There were 125 million contactless payments in 2011 and 1.2 billion in 2015, with total values of C$6 billion ($4.4 billion) and C$33.7 billion ($25 billion), respectively.

Cash is down? Online is up? Seems we’re not so different after all.

Truth be told: In most places worldwide, it seems that the faster the payment, the more its popularity tends to grow year over year.