Worldwide Digital ID Growth: An Evolving Scene

Published Date : 9/9/2025 

Explore the current state and future prospects of digital ID adoption worldwide, as detailed by Trinsic's 2025 Digital ID Adoption Report. Discover the challenges and opportunities in various regions. 

Trinsic, a leading player in the digital ID space, has noted that over 5 billion digital IDs have been issued globally. However, these IDs are highly fragmented across public and private sectors, open and closed source code, and lack mature common standards for interoperability. This fragmentation poses challenges for relying parties, who often find not all digital IDs equally useful or reliable.

CEO Riley Hughes recently presented key findings from Trinsic’s 2025 Digital ID Adoption Report. Hughes emphasized the need to improve identity verification processes that still largely depend on ID document scans and selfie biometrics. By using digital IDs, the time required for verification can be reduced from around 50 seconds to just 5 seconds, significantly enhancing user experience. Additionally, digital IDs can help avoid the ongoing cat-and-mouse game between fraud attackers and ID verification providers, as they deliver information directly from the source.

The opportunities for Trinsic, according to Hughes, are particularly significant in businesses and scenarios where the friction involved in document-based verification is not considered worthwhile, such as those with lower assurance requirements than Know Your Customer (KYC) checks. This opens up more scenarios for fraud reduction and a broader surface area for combating identity theft.

Countries like India and Estonia are often cited as digital ID standouts, but Trinsic identifies the Netherlands, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Brazil, and the Philippines as markets with exceptional opportunities for businesses to use digital IDs, thanks to low entry barriers.

The current landscape of digital ID adoption is dynamic, with some initiatives showing high growth rates despite low totals, and others with strong adoption but paving the way for their own replacements. These replacements often offer more privacy-preserving or digitally native solutions. Mapping digital ID adoption to specific geographies is challenging, as data on usage in different regions is not always readily available.

Trinsic currently tracks 282 digital IDs or digital ID ecosystems, which are categorized into government-issued eIDs, privately issued reusable reIDs, and bank-led digital IDs. In North America, 48 schemes cover 177 million ID-bearing people, representing 69 percent of the adult population. Despite the perception that the U.S. lags behind in digital ID, ID.me is the largest privately operated digital ID network, with a user base predominantly in the U.S.

More than three-quarters of Americans live in states with active or developing mobile driver’s licenses (mDLs), but only about 2 percent have them. The largest number of mDLs in the U.S. are held in Apple Wallets, but the landscape remains fragmented in terms of standard compliance and digital wallet usage.

Europe has 89 digital ID schemes, covering 372 million users, excluding government ID cards and bank ID accounts. Europe is moving towards more open standards with eIDAS 2.0 and EU Digital Identity Wallets, but questions remain about business models and user experience.

In Asia, Trinsic tracks 34 digital ID schemes, covering 2 billion people or 40 percent of the adult population. The Philippines’ PhilSys has evolved to align with international digital ID practices, making it easier to count as a reusable identity.

In Africa, 16 schemes cover 294 million people or 37 percent of the adult population. The divergence in digital ID adoption between countries like Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, and Ethiopia and those without national ID deployments is stark.

In the Middle East, 10 schemes have reached 130 million people, or 59 percent of adults. Singapore’s SingPass and UAE Pass are widely adopted, but their smaller user bases due to the size of their countries mean they do not appear among the most-adopted by raw numbers.

South America has 14 schemes, covering 308 million people or 47 percent of adults. Oceania has 14 schemes, covering 32 million people or 82 percent of adults, mostly in Australia.

Global digital ID schemes not tied to a particular geography make up the remaining 26 schemes, including several decentralized or Web3 IDs.

Comparing last year’s figures, Trinsic has observed a significant increase in digital ID adoption, with double the number of IDs in Africa and South America and over 200 million more in Europe and North America. However, the more significant point is that as digital IDs roll out, they are continuously evolving and changing.

Trinsic’s findings highlight the dynamic and evolving nature of digital ID adoption, presenting both challenges and opportunities for businesses and governments worldwide. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS): 

Q: What is Trinsic?

A: Trinsic is a leading company in the digital ID space, focusing on improving identity verification processes and digital identity solutions.

Q: How many digital IDs have been issued globally according to Trinsic?

A: Trinsic has noted that over 5 billion digital IDs have been issued globally.

Q: What are the main challenges in digital ID adoption?

A: The main challenges include fragmentation across public and private sectors, lack of mature common standards for interoperability, and varying levels of adoption and usage in different regions.

Q: Which countries are leading in digital ID adoption?

A: India, Estonia, the Netherlands, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Brazil, and the Philippines are identified as leading markets for digital ID adoption.

Q: What is the significance of eIDAS 2.0 in Europe?

A: eIDAS 2.0 is a significant move towards more open standards for digital ID in Europe, aiming to improve business models and user experience in digital identity solutions. 

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