Cyprus is projected to become one of the first countries in the world to go fully cashless, according to a new global study by Merchant Machine.

In addition, the study asserted that automated teller machines (ATMs) may disappear from the island within the next sixteen years.

The research analysed global ATM trends using data from the World Bank and internet search patterns to identify countries, US states, and cities most affected by declining cash infrastructure and access.

Cyprus ranked fifth globally in terms of ATM reduction between 2012 and 2021, having lost 33.83 per cent of its machines during that period.

At the current rate of decline, the island is forecast to become entirely cashless by 2041.

Ron Delnevo, Chair of the Payment Choice Alliance (PCA), warned against the risks of removing cash from society altogether, citing the major global IT outage in July 2024 as a wake-up call.

“There will always be outages,” Delnevo said. “But if there is no alternative, then the whole thing can collapse around you.”

The outage in question paralysed millions of computers worldwide, disrupting card payments, phone transactions, and online banking, and cost Fortune 500 companies an estimated $5.4 billion.

Despite the risks, the pressure to go digital remains strong. In the United States, ATM fees are at record highs.

Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, over a quarter of the country’s shrinking ATM network is now pay-to-use.

This decline in ATM availability is not just an inconvenience but a broader threat to consumer choice, privacy, and financial resilience, Merchant Machine warned.

The organisation used the ARIMA statistical model to predict when countries would fall below one operational ATM, thereby becoming effectively cashless.

The projections show Norway and Ireland leading the shift, with both expected to reach cashless status in eleven years.

Cyprus shares its sixteen-year timeline with the Netherlands, placing them behind Lithuania (fourteen years) but ahead of Denmark (twenty-three years), Spain (twenty-four years), and the United Kingdom (thirty-two years).

Cyprus also ranked seventh globally in terms of difficulty accessing cash, based on Google searches for “ATMs near me.”

The study found 8,893 such searches per one million internet users on the island.

The United Arab Emirates topped the list with 28,594 searches per million users, followed by New Zealand, Ireland, Singapore, and Qatar.

In the US, Hawaii was the state where people found it hardest to locate an ATM, while Boston led American cities for ATM-related searches.

The research was commissioned by Merchant Machine, a UK-based firm providing payment processing guidance and resources for small businesses, and produced in partnership with NeoMam Studios.