Expert: Carl Myers - 11/15/2007

Question
Carl,

Here's a ridiculous question that ocurred to me as I was walking to the bank today. There's really no way you should know the answer, but I'm just curious....perhaps you'd know how to figure this out, or who on this expert board might guess at such a thing.

It is: How much cash is carried around in people's pockets evry day in the U.S.?

One thing you might be able to quantify is how much cash is dispensed by ATMs every day in this country. Again, no good reason for needing to know, just curious.

THanks!

Answer
Hi Scott!

Interesting question.  I didn't think I would be able to answer it, but was able to find some of the info for you in a report:

"Approximately 8 billion ATM transactions are performed annually in the United States, according to the Dove 2006 ATM Deployer Study. Those transactions add up to $600 billion in cash dispensed each year."

I was unable to find out how much cash is in people's pockets each day, but if you have a calculator with enough zero's you can figure out how much is withdrawn each day from ATM's.

Thanks for the fun question!

Carl