# Digital identity exclusion

People without ID lose the services that moved online

Problem 0013 · Public sector · Theme: Access · What it would take: A funded startup · Scope: Global · Editorial grade: Critical · Framed 21 September 2026 · Updated 22 September 2026 · Framed from public reporting

Benefits, banking, health records and school places are moving to interfaces that begin by asking you to prove who you are online. Hundreds of millions of people cannot prove who they are at all, and billions more have no digital means of doing it, so each service added to the digital channel quietly removes itself from the people who most need it, while the statistics record improved efficiency.

## Who lives with it

People without foundational or digital ID · agencies moving services online · the frontline staff handling every exception by hand

## Why now

World Bank ID4D data puts around 800 million people without official proof of identity and about 2.8 billion without an online digital ID, improving from 3.3 billion in 2021, with the steepest barriers still falling on women, rural populations and poorer households.

## Why it matters

Digitising a service without a route for people who cannot authenticate does not reduce the work, it moves it to an exception queue nobody resourced. Tools that let agencies serve people who cannot authenticate online (assisted verification, trusted intermediaries, alternative credentials) are unglamorous, needed at scale, and a place a focused team can start.

## From public reporting

- [Global progress in identification: 3 findings from the latest data](https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/digital-development/global-progress-in-identification--3-findings-from-the-latest-da), World Bank ID4D, 30 October 2025

## Cite it

“People without ID lose the services that moved online.” Ainna Problem Radar, problem 0013, 21 September 2026. https://ainna.ai/problems/people-without-id-lose-the-services-that-moved-online

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