Sweden is set to become the first cashless society in the world, researchers report, crediting the shift towards electronic-only transactions to a new mobile payment system called Swish, which facilitates real-time deposits with no minimum spend.

"Cash is still an important means of payment in many countries' markets, but that no longer applies here in Sweden," says Niklas Arvidsson from Stockholm's KTH Royal Institute of Technology. "Our use of cash is small, and it's decreasing rapidly."
 
Right now, there's less than 80 billion Swedish crowns in circulation (about EUR8 billion) and Arvidsson says out of that, only 40 to 60 percent is actually still in regular circulation. The remainder has been buried in people’s backyards, in their sock drawers, or is being used for criminal activity. To give you an idea of how quickly the Swedes are rejecting cash, just six years ago, that figure was up around SEK106 billion.