The Cashless Society – it seems that everywhere I go, I still hear the same story over and over again – cash is going away. Well, I am here to say that despite the monumental efforts of governments and other interested parties to dissuade us from persisting with paper and polymer, cash is indeed alive and well – and still growing in circulation.

Often, when I refute the demise of cash in discussions with friends and colleagues by offering the facts about the growth of cash in circulation, year over year the common rebuttal has to do with the popularity of underground economies. Although there is significant merit to this argument, there are other factors at work. Commonly, cash usage can be cultural in nature. By example, I offer the following personal observation: my wife and I were in the mood for some barbeque duck for dinner last night and so I went in search of the best I could find. Fortunately for me there is am asian strip-mall not far from my home with a wide selection of restaurants and food shops. As I wandered about following my nose to the best barbecue, I noticed that the vast majority of shoppers were handing over cash to pay for their purchases. I watched for a while as shopper after shopper handed over cash for purchases ranging from a few dollars top well over one hundred. As I have commented before, their is a cultural aversion to alternate forms of payment that is pervasive in many societies and that is born from a deep aversion to forms of payment that cost money to use.

I recently read yet another article that refutes the myth that cash usage is diminishing. KAL ATM Software recently posted a link to an independent report from Peter Jones, a freelance journalist who writes for the likes of The Economist and The Times. For those who wish to review the full report, you can download it from KAL’s website, here. For this with less time, I have captured a single snapshot from the report that I think sums up the argument that cash is still alive and well… this table refers to a larger report from the World Payments Report, compiled in 2011 and that is based on payment activities in the UK. As we have heard, the UK is purportedly one of the countries that leads in migration to non-cash payments.