(Newsletter: CRVS Insight February 2023)

Many people around the world do not have official identification to prove who they are. Since 2016, the World Bank’s Identification for Development (ID4D) initiative has produced global identity coverage estimates and data to help fill this gap. ID4D recently updated its Global Dataset and revised the estimate for the number of people worldwide without official proof of identity. ID4D estimates show that approximatively 850 million people did not have official identification in 2021, down from 1 billion in 2018. The Global Dataset also provides further details on who is being most impacted and where these people are located.

The latest edition of the ID4D Global Dataset draws on new data sources, providing a picture of identity ownership on the global level. The new data sources include representative survey-based data on ID ownership from the ID4D-Findex survey, an expanded set of administrative data provided by ID authorities, and associated improvements to the methodology for calculating the global ID coverage gap. The current dataset covers 194 countries.