New World Bank data shows 800M people worldwide still lack legal identity

An estimated 800 million people around the world still lack official proof of identity with many of them children whose births were never registered, according to new figures from the World Bank’s ID4D Global Findex Database 2025. This figure indicates a drop from the estimated 850 million people in that situation in 2021, and the more than one billion in 2017.

The findings, summarized in a World Bank blog, note that while progress has been made since 2017 to close the legal ID gap, digital ID systems on their part remain out of reach for close to 3 billion people, making it impossible for them to access essential services.

Per the report, which underscores the urgency and opportunity of closing the global identity gap in an increasingly digital era, one person in 10 around the world still lacks legal identification. Women, rural inhabitants, low-income and marginalized groups are known to face the steepest barriers to ID access. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the gap remains wide despite national ID systems coverage reaching 80 percent, up from the 70 percent in 2021.

With regard to digital ID which is a key component of digital public infrastructure (DPI), the report finds that just 32 percent of adults in countries with such systems are able to access them. Only 23 percent employ them for at least one use case. Differences exist in digital ID ownership between countries. An example is cited of Bolivia’s 5 percent digital ID ownership, as opposed to Türkiye’s 81 percent.

The findings in the report show that legal and digital ID ownership comes with huge benefits for users, thus “the urgency to ensure inclusive access and practical use becomes greater than ever.”

To close the gaps, the report emphasizes the need for building inclusive and practical digital ID systems. It cites the examples of successful systems like Singapore’s SingPass which is used by almost five million citizens to carry out many transactions digitally, and Uruguay’s ID Uruguay platform which enables access to 190 digital services and 1,500 online procedures.

Among other things, the report calls on countries to lay emphasis on birth registration which is a major aspect of foundational identity, encourage digital ID use by having in place trusted and widely accepted systems, design ID systems to close the gender and equity gaps, make sure digital ID systems are linked to a wide range of services while introducing more relevant real-life use cases, and also build sustainable partnerships and collaboration with international development partners and the private sector.

Dealing with digital government challenges

As African governments advance their digital transformation, they do so with enormous challenges at all levels, which hinder progress.

In order to address some of the challenges, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Resilience Hub for Africa, in collaboration with the UNDP Chief Digital Office, is offering some help.

They are inviting governments to be part of an initiative that encourages co-creation with innovators.

“This is an opportunity for Ministries, Departments, and Agencies to turn persistent obstacles into breakthrough solutions — with the backing of world-class GovTech expertise, financing partners, and a year-long support mechanism designed to move from idea to implementation,” the UNDP said in a call for submissions.

It added that participants should identify and submit their most pressing digital governance challenges, either in the area of use cases or deployment, and retained entries will have “access to technical support, peer learning, and an opportunity to match their challenges with proven, finance-ready GovTech solutions at the upcoming Africa Digital Transformation Solutions Forum.”

This move is line with the UN’s universal DPI safeguards framework which intends to help countries build safe DPI ecosystems. The UNDP helped in the setting up of a digital hub in Morocco to support DPI initiatives by Arab and Africa countries.

Article Topics

birth registration  |  civil registration  |  digital government  |  digital identity  |  Identification for Development (ID4D)  |  legal identity  |  SDG 16.9  |  World Bank