News
Commonwealth ID passes 4 million verified accounts
Four in every seven adults in the Commonwealth now hold a verified account. Take-up remains lowest among people over 75, and we are publishing what we intend to do about it.
At a glance
- 4.1 million verified accounts as at 31 July 2026
- 96.2% of people who start verification complete it
- In-person verification expanding from 40 to 96 locations by March 2027
Commonwealth ID passed four million verified accounts on 24 July 2026, six years after it replaced 27 separate departmental sign-ins. Around 4.1 million people — four in every seven adults — now hold an account they can use across 214 public services.
The figure is worth being careful about. An account total is a measure of our reach, not of whether public services are working. What matters more is that 96.2% of people who start verification finish it, and that the median time to do so is now under nine minutes.
Take-up is not even. Among people aged over 75, fewer than one in three holds an account, and the most common reason given in research is not difficulty but a reasonable reluctance to photograph identity documents. We are extending the in-person route at Commonwealth Service Points from 40 locations to 96 by March 2027 so that route is genuinely available rather than technically available.
We will publish quarterly take-up figures broken down by age, region, and assurance level from October 2026, alongside the verification completion rates we already publish.
Services mentioned
Commonwealth ID
Create one verified account and use it to sign in to every Commonwealth public service that needs to know who you are.
Related guidance
Integrating with Commonwealth ID
How to add Commonwealth ID sign-in to a public service, which assurance level to ask for, and what your service must not do with an identity.