Sweden's Cashless Experiment: Is It Too Much Too Fast?
In Sweden, few people use cash anymore. Most people pay by card, online or with digital apps, and that trend is spurring a new debate on whether going cashless is fair for everyone.
Cash is still king around the world, but there are pockets of places, especially in Europe, moving away from cash. And no one is dropping cash as fast as Sweden.
Only 13 percent of Swedes reported using cash for a recent purchase in 2018, according to a nationwide survey, down from around 40 percent in 2010. In the capital of Stockholm, most people can't even remember the last time they had coins jingling in their pocket.
By contrast, around 70 percent of Americans still use cash on a weekly basis, according to a recent study for the Pew Research Center.
In Sweden, however, especially in the
