Global Analysis of the Government ID Arena

The government ID smart card application is a glowing beacon within the overall smart card market, offsetting disappointing growth and depleting revenue margins in other forms, most notably SIM cards.

Driven by migration programs, governments are enhancing credential security. This move toward mobile and derived credentials along with increasing rates of international travel is creating a smart card vertical capable of growing more than 13% between 2019 and 2023.

Leading smart card vendors, including Gemalto, IDEMIA, G+D, Veridos, and Bundesdruckerei, are now making the required investments to take full advantage of this opportunity by enhancing product portfolios, developing next-generation digital and physical security processes, or pursuing mergers and acquisitions.

ABI Research’s Global Analysis of the Government ID Arena report provides a comprehensive deep-dive qualitative view of the leading trends within government-issued credentials to help ecosystem vendors put strategic decisions into context. Quantitative analysis, covering specific applications including driver’s licenses, healthcare, national ID and voter cards, and passports, is presented for legacy and smart card-based credentials—the latter is split by interface type (contact only, pure contactless, and dual interface).

The report also forecasts and provides insight into the developments in credential technology and materials such as polycarbonate documents and mobile and derived credentials. With the market gap between legacy and smart documents decreasing (smart-format credentials are forecast to occupy 44% of the Government ID market in 2023), regional trends in credential migration programs are also provided, including rising rates of international travel and emphasis on payment integration into government ID programs to address and improve digital inclusion for largely underbanked populations.

The five-year forecast period through 2023 provides ABI Research’s view of the future government ID market landscape, growth opportunities, and likely outcome. Forecasted analysis is included for all major regions: North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East/Africa, with selected country-specific coverage for Alaska, Brazil, Germany, the UK, India, China, Japan, Indonesia, Kenya, and Nigeria, providing additional granularity with detailed examples of credential migration programs.