Check Payment Statistics
Last updated: June 2026 · 6 sourced statistics
Paper checks are disappearing from consumer payments but stubbornly persist in business payments — and as volume falls, fraud is rising. The Federal Reserve's triennial payments study tracks the long decline, while AFP and FinCEN document why finance teams are finally pushing to retire the check.
Key takeaways
- US check volume fell to roughly 11 billion payments — about a quarter of its 2000-era peak (Federal Reserve).
- About a third of B2B payments in the US/Canada are still made by check (AFP).
- Check-fraud reports to FinCEN roughly doubled in a single year.
At a glance
Every figure on this page in one table, each linked to its named source. Scroll down for the full context behind each number.
| Figure | What it measures | Source | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11.2B | Americans wrote about 11.2 billion checks in 2021 — down from over 40 billion at the start of the century, per the Federal Reserve Payments Study. | Federal Reserve Payments Study | 2022 |
| <5% | Checks now account for fewer than 1 in 20 noncash payments by number in the US (Federal Reserve). | Federal Reserve Payments Study | 2022 |
| ~33% | Roughly a third of US and Canadian B2B payments were still made by check in AFP's most recent electronic payments survey — businesses lag consumers by years. | AFP Electronic Payments Survey | 2022 |
| 680K | Check-fraud suspicious activity reports roughly doubled year over year — from ~350,000 (2021) to ~680,000 (2022) — per FinCEN's national alert. | FinCEN | 2023 |
| ~65% | Checks are consistently the payment method most exposed to fraud, cited by about two-thirds of organizations in AFP's annual fraud surveys. | AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey | 2024 |
| Rising | The average value per check has risen steadily as low-value check use disappears — checks increasingly carry only large, often business, payments (Federal Reserve). | Federal Reserve Payments Study | 2022 |
The statistics
Americans wrote about 11.2 billion checks in 2021 — down from over 40 billion at the start of the century, per the Federal Reserve Payments Study.
Source:Federal Reserve Payments Study2022
Checks now account for fewer than 1 in 20 noncash payments by number in the US (Federal Reserve).
Source:Federal Reserve Payments Study2022
Roughly a third of US and Canadian B2B payments were still made by check in AFP's most recent electronic payments survey — businesses lag consumers by years.
Source:AFP Electronic Payments Survey2022
Check-fraud suspicious activity reports roughly doubled year over year — from ~350,000 (2021) to ~680,000 (2022) — per FinCEN's national alert.
Source:FinCEN2023
Checks are consistently the payment method most exposed to fraud, cited by about two-thirds of organizations in AFP's annual fraud surveys.
Source:AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey2024
The average value per check has risen steadily as low-value check use disappears — checks increasingly carry only large, often business, payments (Federal Reserve).
Source:Federal Reserve Payments Study2022
When these numbers don't apply
Aggregate statistics hide a lot. Read these caveats before quoting a figure as if it describes your specific situation.
- The Federal Reserve Payments Study is triennial — the latest published figures lag the current year by 2-3 years.
- The ~33% B2B check share is from AFP's treasury survey; small businesses and sole proprietors use checks at different rates.
- Rising check fraud reflects both more fraud and better reporting after FinCEN's 2023 alert — the two effects can't be cleanly separated.
How we compiled this data
Compiled June 2026 from the Federal Reserve Payments Study, AFP survey research, and FinCEN publications. The Fed study is published triennially; consult the linked page for the latest edition.
We hand-collected each figure from its original publisher rather than recycling secondary round-ups, cross-checked the headline numbers against the source documents in June 2026, and link every statistic to the report it came from so you can verify it yourself. Where a publisher issues annual updates, we cite the report edition and flag the year inline.
Frequently asked questions
How many checks are still written in the US?
About 11 billion per year as of the Federal Reserve's most recent payments study — roughly a quarter of the volume written in 2000.
Why do businesses still use checks?
Inertia, embedded AP processes, and universal acceptance. AFP data shows about a third of B2B payments still go by check, though the share falls each survey.
Are checks safe?
Increasingly not — FinCEN flagged a doubling of check-fraud reports in a single year, and AFP surveys consistently rank checks as the most fraud-prone payment method.
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