More than half a million people in Estonia have used the ID-card electronically – they have used their digital identity certificate at least once to identify themselves or give a digital signature. ID-cards and residence cards have been issued to more than 1.3 million people in Estonia.

“Fact that 37% of cardholders have used their electronic identity certificates is a very positive result and shows that the people living in Estonia value their ID-cards and see the benefits of using it electronically,” said Kalev Pihl, CEO at the Certification Centre.

The electronic options of the ID-card that are actively used in Estonia are identification and digital signature – 500,000 people have identified themselves electronically for at least 131 million times in total since the first ID-card was issued in 2002. This means at least 260 instances of electronic identification per each user.

500,000 people have given 78 million digital signatures in 10 years, which is a remarkable 156 digital signatures per each user.

“It is noteworthy that the ID-card has been electronically used more than 209 million times in total,” said Pihl. “Meaning that in each of these cases the people using their cards have been able to do what they needed to do without having to go anywhere. The average number of transactions carried out by one ID-card user in Estonia is 416. This figure makes Estonia clearly the leader both in Europe and the whole world.”

1,317,983 unique ID-cards and residence permits have been issued in Estonia as at the end of March.

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