Italy holds a strong position in the development of the European Digital Identity Wallet (EUDI), with SPID and CIE/CieID continuing to grow rapidly. Development of the national IT Wallet is also progressing. Looking across Europe, however, the broad variety of open use cases may slow the uptake of member-state wallets, even as the EU continues to accelerate efforts toward EUDI Wallet adoption.
Across Europe, 22 digital identity wallet projects are underway, though none has yet achieved full EUDI certification. Meanwhile, partnerships between governments and Big Tech companies are increasing, and 110 privately developed wallets are currently active worldwide.
In Italy, the ecosystem is expanding steadily:
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41.5 million SPID identities have been issued.
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48.4 million Italians hold an Electronic Identity Card (CIE).
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9 million users have activated digital credentials through the CieID app.
Nearly 7 million people have activated “Documents on IO,” the only feature of the IT Wallet currently available, which now stores 11.7 million documents. These insights were presented by the Politecnico di Milano’s Digital Identity Observatory at the conference “Identity Wallet: Near Future or Distant Vision?”
Adoption trends show mixed sentiments: 50% of Italian users already rely on a BigTech wallet, aligning with the 56% of Italians who express interest in the EUDI Wallet. At the same time, 49% would prefer their digital identity wallet to be provided directly by the government. Although 2024–2025 has been a period of experimentation with credentials inside digital wallets, widespread adoption still appears to be some distance away.
Neighboring countries such as the United Kingdom and Switzerland have opted to align with EU standards to ensure interoperability. While Europe pursues a multi-track approach within the eIDAS 2 regulatory framework, digital identity wallets around the world are advancing at very different speeds. Several countries are forming strategic partnerships with Big Tech, which is using the opportunity to strengthen their own identity solutions.
In Japan, for example, Apple has integrated the national identity card into Apple Wallet. In the United States, Apple and Google have begun storing digital passports, currently usable for domestic travel in select airports.
