Payment cards issued, either credit or debit card, in Sweden 2000-2022
The total number of payment cards issued in Sweden peaked in 2014, and thereafter steadily dropped in the following years. There were 18.1 million payment cards issued in Sweden in 2022. The value of card payments, however, did not drop during this period, but increased each year since 2015, for both debit and credit cards.
Payment method trends
The trend of payments with cash in Sweden went in the opposite direction with the increasing trend of paying with cards. According to a survey on payment patterns in Sweden from 2010 to 2020, the share of consumers who paid their most recent purchase with cash declined annually, falling down to only 9 percent in 2018.
Mobile payment methods
The use of mobile payment apps is increasing in the country, especially the use of the app Swish. As of July 2020, the app had around 7.6 million customers, most of them private customers. During the same month, the average number of transactions per private customer was 4.63 times.