The number of users of digital identity documents globally will exceed 6.5 billion by 2026, from 4.2 billion in 2022, a new report showed on Monday.

The pandemic has accelerated this expansion of over 50 per cent, and reflects the growing importance of digital identity in sectors such as government services, according to Juniper Research.

A digital identity document is a digital representation of a physical identity document like a driving licence or a passport.

“Identity cards have been controversial in some countries due to privacy concerns, but they are a well-established mechanism for digitising identity practices,” said research co-author Damla Sat.

If third-party access is governed correctly, identity cards can be at the centre of the digital identity market, but they need to be backed by robust processes, Sat added.

As government-issued documents are critical to identity processes, any compromising of these documents is very risky

The research found that digital identity cards, where digital details are loaded onto an identity card, will be used by over 4 billion people globally in 2026, from 2.5 billion in 2022.

This ongoing digitisation is a prerequisite for many digital initiatives within e-government, and will allow significant digital enablement over the next five years.

As government-issued documents are critical to identity processes, any compromising of these documents is very risky.

Therefore, governments issuing digital identity documents must work with verification vendors who offer a variety of different verification scenarios across use cases, or they will fail to secure this high-risk fraud avenue, said the report.