Americans Wrote 9 Billion Checks in 2024: 79% of the Total

Americans wrote 8.99 billion checks in 2024, according to payment statistics published through the Bank for International Settlements. Across the 23 economies that report check numbers, that is 79.3% of the total.

The next largest check writer, France, wrote 784 million. India wrote 626 million and Canada 246 million. No other economy reached 200 million.

26 checks per person

Measured per person, the gap is just as wide. The United States wrote 26.4 checks for every resident in 2024. France wrote 11.8 and Canada 6.0.

After those three, the figures drop below two. Singapore wrote 1.4 checks per person, the United Kingdom 1.3 and Argentina 1.2. Germany wrote 0.02. The Netherlands, Sweden and South Africa report zero or close to zero.

Checks are still 4.1% of all cashless payments in the United States by number. In France they are 2.4%.

Falling, but more slowly

US check use is declining. Between 2019 and 2024 the number of checks fell 29.6%.

Almost everywhere else, it fell faster. Across the 22 economies with figures for both years, the median fall was 56.8%. Checks fell 50.6% in France, 66.5% in the United Kingdom, 73.6% in Australia and 81.2% in Singapore. Turkiye was the only economy where the number rose, by 1.8%.

Fewer checks, larger amounts

The total value of US checks has not fallen at all. Between 2018 and 2024 the number of checks dropped 33.9%, from 13.6 billion to 9.0 billion. Their combined value rose 10.6%, from $26.08 trillion to $28.84 trillion.

That means the average US check grew from $1,917 to $3,207, an increase of 67.3%. In France, by contrast, the average check was about EUR 500 in both 2019 and 2024.

Why this matters

For payment providers, the US figures describe a market where paper is shrinking at the small end but holding on at the large end. Consumers have moved everyday payments to cards and apps; the checks that remain carry much larger sums, a pattern consistent with business and government payments, though the data cannot show who writes them.

That makes US check volume less a consumer habit than a receivables problem. Any provider offering US payouts or invoice collection still has to handle a payment type that has shrunk far faster in most other large economies.

What this is not

Coverage differs between economies. The US figure includes Treasury checks and postal money orders. Canada counts only checks cleared between institutions. Korea includes promissory notes. The US share is a measure of scale, not an exact figure.

The BIS notes that the US figures for 2015 to 2023 were revised to match estimates from the Federal Reserve Payments Study, so the years between those estimates are estimates too. This article does not use the 2014 US figures, which fall outside that revision.

The statistics do not say who writes checks or why the average value rose. HaiPay did not contact the BIS or the Federal Reserve.

What to watch

Whether the US decline speeds up. At 29.6% over five years, it is about half the median pace.

Whether the average US check keeps rising. If the number keeps falling while total value holds, checks are becoming a high-value business instrument rather than an everyday one.

And whether France, the second-largest check user, keeps closing the gap with the rest of Europe, where check use per person is far lower.