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19 of the 27 European Union member states use the euro as their official currency. As of 2019, there are over 340 million inhabitants living within the so-called eurozone, also known as the euro region, which is a collection of states. One euro is equal to one hundred cents. Akrotiri and Dhekelia are British Overseas Territories, four European microstates that are not EU members, the institutions of the European Union, as well as Montenegro and Kosovo unilaterally utilize the currency. Numerous exclusive areas of EU members also use the euro as their currency outside of Europe. Additionally, the euro is the currency used by more than 200 million people globally. After the US dollar, the euro is the second-largest reserve currency and the second-most traded currency in the world as of 2013. The cumulative value of banknotes and coins in circulation for the euro is among the biggest in the world as of December 2019, totaling more than EU1.3 trillion. The currency's name was formally adopted on December 16th, 1995 in Madrid. On January 1, 1999, the euro was introduced to the international financial markets as an accounting currency, replacing the previous European Currency Unit at a 1:1 ratio. On January 1, 2002, physical euro coins and banknotes went into circulation, becoming the primary mode of payment among its founding members. By March 2002, it had totally supplanted the prior currencies. The euro fluctuated below the US dollar between December 1999 and December 2002, but has since risen to or above the US dollar, reaching a high of US$1.60 on July 18, 2008, and since then, recovering to a level close to its initial issuance rate. Due in part to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the two currencies reached parity on July 13 of that year for the first time in almost two decades.