Anecdotally, contactless is supported in a majority of places in Europe – even though Apple Pay has yet to roll out to many European banks. As a result, I use Apple Pay at most places in Switzerland and Poland, yet it's always the merchant's first time seeing Apple Pay used. In fact, most of them weren't aware it's a thing since their credit card / bank doesn't offer it.

Huh? Most of the chip readers I've seen are NFC enabled.

I use apple pay whenever I can. It's faster than the chip readers

Most places that I've seen have installed NFC readers at the same time they upgraded to chip readers.

That said, I've yet to see anyone actually use contactless in the wild.

I did, once. Because Discover was offering 10% cashback when they launched Apple Pay support, so I loaded up my card on my buddy's iPhone and went to Best Buy to buy a Surface Book. I've had zero other incentive to use contactless otherwise.

Like the others, I use it wherever I can. The newer Verifone readers have NFC capabilities.

Whether or not the retailer has enabled it is another story. It's also another story if the staff knows anything about it.

Whataburger is an example. They take Apple Pay and they didn't even know it. The employees are always surprised to see someone use it.

In the UK it works basically everywhere. We've had contactless cards for a while.