The use of digital payments might be accelerating, but cash is still the dominant means of payment in the euro area.
According to the latest data from the European Central Bank (ECB), close to 30 billion euro banknotes were in circulation at the end of 2023, with a combined total value of €1.57 trillion.
The chart looks at the quantity of the different banknotes since 2002, showing that the €50 banknote is by far the most widely circulated banknote, making up 49% of all banknotes in circulation at the end of 2023. With a total 14.6 billion €50 notes circulating, they also amount to 731 billion in monetary value. This is 46% of the total monetary value of all euro banknotes circulating.
The €500 note, unsurprisingly, is the least circulated note, with “just” 267 million such notes in circulation at the end of 2023. In terms of monetary value however they make up close to 9% of total monetary value of euro banknotes (133 billion).
Total quantity of banknotes circulating at the end of 2023, and their share of total quantity:
- €5: 2.1 billion, 7.3%
- €10: 3.1 billion, 10.2%
- €20: 4.9 billion, 16.2%
- €50: 14.6 billion, 49.1%
- €100: 3.9 billion, 13.4%
- €200: 844 million, 2.9%
- €500: 267 million, 1.0%
Total value of banknotes circulating at the end of 2023, and their share of total value:
- €5: 10.1 billion, 0.7%
- €10: 30.1 billion, 1.9%
- €20: 97.2 billion, 6.1%
- €50: 731.3 billion, 46.2%
- €100: 395.0 billion, 25.2%
- €200: 168.7 billion, 10.9%
- €500: 133.3 billion, 9.0%
Read more:
- European Central Bank, Banknotes statistics, accessed 5. February 2024.