The proportion of Europeans regularly using a phone, tablet or wearable to manage their money or make an in-person, online or in-app payment is rising fast, according to a Visa-backed study.

The figure grew to 54 per cent in 2016 from 18 per cent a year ago, according to a study conducted by research firm Populus on behalf of the credit card giant.

Turkey has the highest proportion of mobile payment users (91 per cent), followed by Denmark (89 per cent) and Norway (87 per cent).

Markets such as Turkey and Romania (79 per cent) have leapfrogged traditional payment methods to adopt new technologies faster than some wealthier European countries.

The research was conducted between August and September this year in 19 European countries among 36,000 participants, with approximately 2,000 per country.