May 17th, 2024, Lesley Simeon
In an increasingly globalised world, international money transfers are a vital financial tool for people across markets. Being able to transfer money across borders is useful for a variety of reasons - from supporting family abroad, paying for an overseas vacation, or conducting international business. In this piece, we explore YouGov data to see how often consumers transfer money to someone abroad.
A recent YouGov survey asked consumers across 17 international markets how often, if at all, they transferred money to someone in a different country in the last 12 months. Survey results reveal that most consumers did not transfer money overseas at all, while less than one in ten did so regularly.
YouGov Surveys: Serviced data shows that while 68% of consumers never transferred money to someone in a different country in the past 12 months, 6% did so regularly. Similar proportions of consumers transferred money overseas occasionally (12%) or rarely (11%).
Demographic data reveals that 35-to-44-year-olds are the most likely to have wired money overseas (10%) regularly in the last 12 months, followed by 25-to-34-year-olds (8%).
Next, we look at data from individual markets around how often consumers transferred money to someone abroad.
Consumers who sent money internationally:
Regularly
Nearly a third of all respondents in the UAE (32%) transferred money overseas regularly (owing to the significant expatriate population in the region, perhaps) in the last 12 months, marking a significant lead over the other countries part of the survey.
Australians (11%), Indian (10%) and Singaporeans (7%) follow. In Europe, Swedes are the most likely (5%) to have moved money internationally regularly.
Equal, but tiny, proportions of respondents in Great Britian (2%) and USA (2%) transferred money abroad regularly.
Occasionally
Over a third of respondents in the UAE (35%) sent money across borders occasionally in the last 12 months, followed by Indians (19%), Hong Kongers (18%) and Singaporeans (14%).
Brits are more likely than Americans (8% vs. 5%) to have sent money abroad occasionally in the last 12 months.
Rarely
Respondents in Singapore (19%), Hong Kong (18%) and the UAE (18%) lead in saying they rarely transferred money to someone in a different country, and within Europe, similarly proportions of Poles (13%) and Denmark (12%) say the same.
Never
A majority of Americans (81%) did not wire money overseas at all, in the past 12 months, followed by Brits (79%) and Italians (79%). In Asia, Indonesians (72%) are the most likely to agree.
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Methodology: YouGov
Surveys: Serviced provide quick survey results from
nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. The data is based on surveys of adults aged 18+ years in 17
markets with sample sizes varying between 500 and 2002 for each market. All surveys were
conducted online in January 2024. Data from each market uses a nationally representative
sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and
Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples. Learn
more about YouGov Surveys: Serviced.
Photo by Christine Roy on Unsplash