Three billion contactless transactions have been made across Europe during the past 12 months, new stats from Visa have revealed.

The figure is nearly triple that of the preceding 12 months, and contactless payments as a proportion of all Visa-processed face-to-face payments have risen from 1-in-60 in 2013, to more than 1-in-5 this year.

European consumers used their contactless cards 360 million times in April alone – equivalent to nearly 140 transactions per second, and a 150 per cent increase from the 143 million transactions recorded in April 2015. The average purchase value also rose 12 per cent year-on-year to €13.83.

Restaurants experienced the greatest annual growth in contactless transactions (153 per cent), followed by general retail (146 per cent), supermarkets (119 per cent), and food and drink – including fast food (96 per cent).

There are now 165 million Visa contactless cards in circulation and 3.2 million contactless-enabled PoS terminals active in Europe – up 23 per cent from 2.6 million at the end of April 2015.

Consumers in Poland, Spain and the UK used contactless the most, according to Visa. British contactless adoption grew by 300 per cent from 51 million transactions in April 2015 to 153 million in April 2016, partly due to commuter use across the Transport for London network, which has seen more than 400 million contactless journeys since launch (nearly nine in 10 of which have been made using Visa cards).

The payments company added that some of the most popular contactless retailers in the UK are currently Tesco, The Co-Operative, McDonald’s and Marks & Spencer. Additionally, the launch of Apple Pay and Barclaycard’s bPay have encouraged consumers to adopt new ways to pay via smart phones and wearable devices, Visa noted.

Tristan Kirchner, executive director for product management at Visa Europe, said: “The last 12 months have seen contactless payment continue its extraordinary growth, as this quick and convenient form of payment reaches more consumers and merchants throughout Europe. This kind of success hasn’t happened overnight, and it’s down to the sterling efforts across many teams at Visa and the wider payment industry making today’s achievement possible, while setting the stage for tomorrow’s technology, including new wearable devices and mobile payment services.”

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