Biggest international and domestic payment card schemes in Sweden 2018-2022

The market share of Mastercard in Sweden was significantly larger than that of both Visa and American Express. In 2021, Mastercard reached a market share of 71 percent, followed by Visa with a market share of 28 percent. Only a small share used American Express (2 percent). On a European level, the market share of Mastercard and Visa was almost reversed to those of Sweden. Mastercard was only the second most common while Visa was the leading payment card brand, in terms of purchase volume.

 Card payments in Sweden

Paying with a card is the most common payment method in Sweden. A total of 18.7 million payment cards were issued in Sweden in 2019. Payments with debit cards were especially common. For example, Swedish transaction values were higher for debit cards than those from credit cards, reaching a total value of 824 billion Swedish kronor in 2019.

 Cashless Sweden

Sweden is often said to be a cashless society, but is the country totally cashless? According to data from 2018, Sweden is not yet completely cashless, but the trend is going in that direction. In 2019, 12.8 percent of the total payments in the country were made by cash.