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The countries that share a currency

The world's 197 countries use 143 currencies, and 62 of them share theirs with another country. 27 use the euro; seventeen use money issued by a country or union they aren't part of.

Computed from the site’s dataLast checked 17 October 2026Suggest a correction

Every country that shares its currency with at least one other.

Most countries have money of their own: of the 143 currencies the 197 countries use, 135 belong to a single country.[1] The other eight are shared, between 62 countries.[1]

The shared currencies

The euro is the most widely shared, used in 27 countries with about 361 million people between them.[1][2] Bulgaria is the newest: it switched from the lev on 1 January 2026, the euro area's 21st member.[3]

The two CFA francs come next. Eight West African countries share one, issued by the BCEAO, and six in Central Africa share the other, issued by the BEAC; both have been pegged at 655.957 francs to the euro since 1999.[4] The East Caribbean dollar is shared by six island countries.[1]

#CurrencyCountriesPeople
1Flag of AndorraFlag of AustriaFlag of BelgiumEuro27361 million
2Flag of BeninFlag of Burkina FasoFlag of Guinea-BissauWest African CFA franc8154 million
3Flag of EcuadorFlag of El SalvadorFlag of Marshall IslandsUS dollar7368 million
4Flag of CameroonFlag of Central African RepublicFlag of ChadCentral African CFA franc667 million
5Flag of Antigua and BarbudaFlag of DominicaFlag of GrenadaEast Caribbean dollar61 million
6Flag of AustraliaFlag of KiribatiFlag of NauruAustralian dollar428 million
7Flag of IsraelFlag of PalestineIsraeli shekel216 million
8Flag of LiechtensteinFlag of SwitzerlandSwiss franc29 million
Flags show the first three users. People are each country's latest World Bank population, added up.

The euro outside the EU

Six countries outside the European Union use the euro.[1] Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City have monetary agreements with the EU, and may mint a limited number of euro coins with their own designs.[5] Kosovo and Montenegro have no such agreement: they don't issue a currency of their own, and have used the euro since 2002, after the Deutsche Mark before it.[5]

Someone else's money

Eleven more countries use a currency issued by one other country.[1] The US dollar is the most borrowed: Ecuador, El Salvador, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau and Timor-Leste all use it.[1] Three Pacific states, Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu, use the Australian dollar; Liechtenstein uses the Swiss franc; and Palestine uses the Israeli shekel.[1]

#CountryUses
1Flag of EcuadorEcuadorUS dollar
2Flag of El SalvadorEl SalvadorUS dollar
3Flag of Marshall IslandsMarshall IslandsUS dollar
4Flag of MicronesiaMicronesiaUS dollar
5Flag of PalauPalauUS dollar
6Flag of Timor-LesteTimor-LesteUS dollar
7Flag of KiribatiKiribatiAustralian dollar
8Flag of NauruNauruAustralian dollar
9Flag of TuvaluTuvaluAustralian dollar
10Flag of LiechtensteinLiechtensteinSwiss franc
11Flag of PalestinePalestineIsraeli shekel

How we counted

Each country's currency is the one GeoNames lists for it, except the euro, which follows the site's own list of euro countries; GeoNames still listed Bulgaria on the lev.[1][3] A country counts once, under its main currency, even where a second one is widely used.[1]

Populations are the World Bank's latest total for each country, added up per currency.[2]

Sources

  1. [1]
    countryInfo.txt · GeoNames

    Each country's neighbours, currency, languages and time zones, as the site's games and Globe Atlas use them.

  2. [2]
    Population, total (SP.POP.TOTL) · World Bank

    The most recent year for each country.

  3. [3]
    Bulgaria introduces the euro · European Central Bank · 1 January 2026
  4. [4]
    History of the CFA franc · Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO)
  5. [5]
    The euro outside Europe · European Central Bank · 1 January 2026

    First published 2017, updated January 2026.

More by the numbers

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