Which countries don't require it's citizens to surrender their biometric data for identification i.e in which countries biometric ID doesn't exist or isn't legally nor functionally reqd?
Executive summary
A substantial majority of states now issue some form of biometric identity—most passports and many national ID cards embed fingerprints, face templates or chips—but a meaningful minority of countries either do not issue national identity cards at all, have non‑biometric ID schemes, or have successfully resisted mandatory biometric national ID programs (notably several Anglophone democracies and some microstates) [1] [2] [3]. Precise, comprehensive lists are elusive in the public reporting; the evidence points to three overlapping categories of places where citizens are not legally or functionally required to surrender biometrics: states without national ID cards, states with non‑biometric cards, and states where mandatory biometric ID schemes were rejected or blocked [2] [4] [3].
1. Countries that simply do not issue national ID cards (so biometrics aren’t a universal legal requirement)
A small set of countries do not operate a national identity‑card system, and in those jurisdictions citizens typically rely on passports, driver’s licences or private documents for identity verification instead—Andorra, Denmark and the United Kingdom are cited examples of states that do not issue national ID cards at all [4] [5] [2]. Where a state does not have a mandatory national card, there is no blanket legal duty for every citizen to submit biometric data as part of a national ID enrollment, though biometrics may still be collected for specific services (passports, border control, banks) [1] [2].
2. Countries with national IDs that are explicitly non‑biometric or not universally biometric
Some countries issue physical identity cards but have not adopted biometric chips or mandatory biometric enrollment for all citizens; North Macedonia is singled out in reporting as one of the few European states with non‑biometric ID cards [4]. Independent trackers have shown that while biometric passports and e‑passports have spread rapidly—over 150 countries by mid‑2019—there remain dozens of states whose domestic ID cards rely primarily on printed data rather than embedded biometric chips [1] [5].
3. Countries where mandatory biometric national IDs were opposed or blocked
Public and legal resistance has prevented mandatory biometric national ID programs in several democratic countries, meaning citizens are not compelled by law to surrender biometrics for a single national ID database; the Electronic Frontier Foundation cites Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States as places where biometric national ID schemes have been successfully opposed [3]. That resistance does not eliminate biometrics in other contexts—passports, law enforcement, border control or private sector uses can still collect biometric data—but it does mean there is no single legal requirement to enroll all citizens’ biometrics into a state ID registry in those jurisdictions [3].
4. The messy middle: passports, travel documents and functional requirements
Even where a country lacks a biometric national ID, many states issue biometric passports or require biometrics for visas and border crossing; Malaysia was an early adopter of biometric passports and by 2019 the majority of passports worldwide had biometric chips, demonstrating that absence of a biometric domestic ID does not equate to biometric‑free life for citizens [1]. Calctopia’s survey suggests roughly a third of countries lacked any biometric passport or biometric identity card as of 2023, but those countries represent a small fraction of the global population and include many small island states—reporting warns that lists can be skewed by microstates and rapidly changing rollouts [6].
5. How to verify whether a specific country requires biometrics
Public sources useful for verification include national government ID and passport agencies, international standards trackers (ICAO guidance on e‑passports) and civil liberties organisations that document legal challenges to biometric databases; global summaries exist but are periodically out of date because many countries are actively rolling out biometric IDs or digital identity projects [1] [7]. Reporting also shows that “not issuing a national ID” is not binary: some countries plan digital IDs or are moving to chip‑enabled cards, so a present absence of mandatory biometrics can change within months or years [4] [7].
Conclusion: a factual but fluid picture
The clearest takeaway is that while biometrics have become the global standard for many identity functions, a non‑trivial set of countries either do not require citizens to surrender biometrics for a single mandatory national ID or do not issue biometric national ID cards at all—examples in reporting include Andorra, Denmark, the UK, North Macedonia and the Anglosphere states where proposals were blocked—but the landscape is fluid and context‑dependent [2] [4] [3] [1]. Available sources do not present a definitive, up‑to‑the‑minute global roster of every state where biometrics are not legally required, so confirming country‑level policy from official national documents remains necessary for any individual case [6] [7].