The data displays the overall payments made by consumers in the UK in 2016 by payment method against a 2026 forecast of how payment method volumes will change. 2016 statistics show that cash is still the most popular method of payment with approx. 15.4 billion payments in 2016. The forecast shows that this is likely to change with cash purchases falling to second behind debit cards, which are forecast to rise from 11.6 billion to 18.2 billion purchases per year in 2026. Contactless debit card payments are set to rise significantly between 2016 and 2025, from 2.
