National digital identity worldwide: models, leaders, standards

Last reviewed: 5 October 2026 · Not legal advice

National digital identity is a credential issued or recognised by a state that a person uses to prove who they are online: a login account, a number checked against a central register, a bank ID or a phone wallet. For a business, the identity data comes signed by the issuer instead of being read off a photo of a card.

This guide maps national digital identity worldwide as of 5 October 2026: its numbers, models, regional leaders, standards and access rules. For the scheme-by-scheme list of each electronic ID (eID), see national eID schemes by country.

National digital identity in numbers

The World Bank's Identification for Development (ID4D) dataset (2025) is the global reference. About 800 million people have no official ID, down from 850 million in 2021 and just over 1 billion in 2017. More than half of them are children whose births were never registered.^[1][2]

Of the 89 countries that offer such a credential, 51 are high-income.^[1] Having a scheme is not the same as using it: in countries with an online digital ID, about 46% of adults own one and 35% have used it. Ownership ranges from 5% in Bolivia to 81% in Türkiye.^[2] Chip ID cards exist in at least 100 countries (2022 dataset).^[1]

Five models of national digital identity

The model decides what a business receives and how it connects. The basics of electronic identification and levels of assurance are in what eID verification is.

The big split is between account-based schemes, where the state or a bank answers each sign-in, and wallets, where the person holds a signed credential and presents selected attributes. Account-based schemes dominate in Asia, the Gulf and the Nordics; wallets are rolling out in the EU, the US states and Japan.

Regional leaders in national digital identity

The largest schemes per region, with the newest official figure. Metrics differ, so rows do not compare directly.

Asia built the largest systems. The Nordics run on bank IDs nearly every adult holds; the wider European picture is in the European eID schemes guide. In the Gulf, the state app is the default, and regulators wire it into onboarding: the UAE central bank lets licensed institutions use UAE PASS for customer due diligence under an assurance-level assessment and biometric multi-factor authentication, and Saudi Arabia's central bank requires biometric authentication with a high level of verification, based on Nafath, for remote onboarding.^[22][23] Latin America has large government logins, but private access usually goes through a data-validation service instead of the login, and Mexico's biometric CURP, the national population registry code, is being adopted progressively.^[24][25]

The UK cancelled its national digital ID on 21 July 2026; GOV.UK One Login and GOV.UK Wallet continue.^[26] The US relies on federal logins and state mobile driving licences, which the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) accepts from 22 states and territories.^[27]

Interoperability standards that connect national digital identity

Wallet standards let one verifier read credentials from many issuers.

In the EU, remote presentation from the wallet uses OpenID4VP, by redirect or through the Digital Credentials API, or ISO/IEC 18013-7 through the same API.^[8] The sequence below shows a browser-mediated request.

Simplified: OpenID4VP or ISO/IEC 18013-7 through the Digital Credentials API.^[8][32]

What the user sees in a national eID sign-in

Most account-based schemes look alike to the user. In the Singpass Myinfo flow, the data arrives from government sources, already marked as verified.

An illustration of the Singpass Myinfo flow, not real screens.

Who may use a national eID: private access by region

Most schemes started for government services. Whether a private company may connect is the first question per country.

In the EU, the Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (AMLR) applies from 10 July 2027 and accepts eID at level substantial or high next to identity documents.^[48] Wallet use stays voluntary, so other identification routes remain available.^[28]

What a global business should do

No single national digital identity covers the world, and these dates change the map.

1. 1 December 2026Sweden, AustraliaSweden's state e-ID law applies; accredited private providers join Australia's system.
2. 24 December 2026EUDI WalletsEach Member State offers at least one wallet.
3. 1 January 2027myID feesBusinesses that use myID start contributing to its costs, at the latest.
4. 10 July 2027AMLReID is one of the two verification routes.
5. 24 December 2027AcceptanceRegulated firms accept the EUDI Wallet on request.

Key dates.^{[35][43][28][48]}

The design that works is a waterfall per country: the eID people already use first, a document route for everyone else. When to pick eID over video identification is covered in eID vs video ident, and the build steps in the eID API integration guide.

• List the countries where your users are and the eIDs they hold.
• Check per country whether private firms may connect, and how.
• Record the level of assurance each scheme asserts.
• Store only what each scheme allows; Aadhaar offline verification forbids keeping the number.^[37]
• Plan for EUDI Wallet acceptance before 24 December 2027 if you are a regulated firm in the EU.^[28]

How Didit helps with national digital identity verification

Didit runs eID sign-ins and the document route in one workflow. Five eIDs are live today across seven countries: MitID, BankID Sweden, the Finnish Trust Network, Smart-ID and Mobile-ID. Each returns the full name, the date of birth, a scheme identifier (for example the Swedish personnummer; MitID returns a pseudonymised identifier, not the CPR number), the level of assurance the scheme asserted and a signature check, with no address or portrait.^[49] Turn them on in the console under Workflows, ID Verification, Countries, Wallets accepted.

UAE PASS, gov.br, GOV.UK Wallet and Diia are on Didit's roadmap, and EUDI Wallet acceptance is coming soon; see the EUDI Wallet page. Didit adds Singpass, Aadhaar, Nafath and other schemes on request. Everywhere, the document route with near-field communication (NFC) chip reading, liveness and face match works today, across 220+ countries and territories and 14,000+ document types. Talk to us about Singpass, Aadhaar or Nafath. A full know-your-customer (KYC) check costs $0.33, NFC verification $0.15 and anti-money laundering (AML) screening $0.20. Only completed eID sign-ins are billed, at the scheme prices on the pricing page.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. ID4D Global Dataset 2025, World Bank.
2. Global progress in identification: 3 findings from the latest data, World Bank blog.
3. Singpass Factsheet, 30 June 2026, GovTech Singapore.
4. AUA/KUA agreement v4.0, UIDAI.
5. BankID in numbers, BankID Sweden.
6. Overview of pre-notified and notified eID schemes under eIDAS, European Commission, read 5 October 2026.
7. About MitID, MitID.
8. Architecture and Reference Framework v3.0.0, European Commission (GitHub), 23 July 2026.
9. Aadhaar figures, Press Information Bureau, Government of India, 18 March 2026.
10. National online identity authentication service one year on, Ministry of Public Security of China, 13 July 2026.
11. Singpass factsheet, Ministry of Digital Development and Information.
12. Report 2026, Digital Agency of Japan.
13. 90 million Filipinos registered and verified to the National ID, Philippine Statistics Authority.
14. Figures and statistics, Agency for Digital Government (Denmark).
15. Smart-ID live user counter, SK ID Solutions.
16. IT-Wallet passes 10 million activations, Department for Digital Transformation (Italy), 17 February 2026.
17. How we made it easier for millions of users to sign in, Government Digital Service, 16 September 2026.
18. UAE PASS, Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority.
19. gov.br records 77.8 million gold accounts, Convergência Digital (quoting the Ministry of Management).
20. Login.gov roadmap, December 2025, GSA.
21. NIN enrolment report, October 2025, NIMC.
22. Guidance for licensed financial institutions on digital identification for CDD, Central Bank of the UAE.
23. Biometric authentication for remote customer relationship initiation, SAMA Rulebook.
24. Datavalid, Serpro.
25. CURP biométrica, Secretaría de Gobernación (Mexico), 13 April 2026.
26. Digital ID, House of Commons Library briefing CBP-10369.
27. Participating states, TSA digital ID.
28. Regulation (EU) 2024/1183 (eIDAS 2), EUR-Lex, Official Journal of 30 April 2024.
29. ISO/IEC TS 18013-7:2024, ISO.
30. OpenID for Verifiable Presentations 1.0 Final Specification approved, OpenID Foundation.
31. W3C publishes Verifiable Credentials 2.0 as a W3C Standard, W3C, 15 May 2025.
32. Digital Credentials API shipped, Chrome for Developers, 3 October 2025.
33. Is it time for Digital Travel Credentials to take off, Juniper Research.
34. NIST SP 800-63-4, Digital Identity Guidelines, NIST.
35. About e-identification, Agency for Digital Government (DIGG, Sweden).
36. Using digital identities with the Money Laundering Regulations, HM Treasury and DSIT, 26 February 2026.
37. Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Act, 2019, UIDAI.
38. Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) v. Union of India, Supreme Court of India, 26 September 2018.
39. Singpass pricing model FAQ for private organisations, Singpass Partner Support.
40. JPKI introduction for private businesses, Digital Agency of Japan.
41. Memorandum M-2025-012, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
42. Expanding the Australian Government Digital ID System, Digital ID System.
43. Digital ID expands to the private sector, Australian Minister for Finance, 26 June 2026.
44. Onboarding process for UAE PASS service providers, UAE PASS documentation.
45. Single sign-on to government and private services, user guide, SDAIA.
46. Licensed service providers, NIMC.
47. Modalities and products, Sistema de Identidad Digital (RENAPER).
48. Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 (AMLR), EUR-Lex.
49. eID integrations, Didit documentation.

Compare every scheme and its status on the eID verification page, and add the eIDs your users already hold.