The ability to prove one’s identity is essential to securing both rights and access to a number of life-enhancing services including healthcare, voting, education, financial services, employment and social protections. As we continue advancing in the digital age, identification becomes ever more critical to gaining access to mobile connectivity and a range of mobile services particularly across 155 countries where ‘mandatory SIM registration’ policies are in place. These research reports examine these policies globally and find, among other things, that the majority of markets with low mobile penetration are also characterised by low levels of registered populations, suggesting a direct relationship between people’s ability to access a government-recognised proof of identity and the level of mobile penetration in that market.