Statistics released by the Republic of Estonia show that the number of e-Residency applications now exceeds the yearly number of births in the country. According to official data, the total number of 2017 births to November was 10,269, compared with 11,096 e-Residency applications for the same period.

“With over 27,000 e-Residency applications to date, we’ve seen the initiative’s popularity grow steadily since launch.” said Kaspar Korjus, Programme Lead, e-Residency. “e-Residency offers the freedom for every world citizen to easily start and run a global EU company from anywhere in the world, and as of October 2017, our e-Residents own over 4,000 enterprises.”

The project has attracted applications from over 150 countries from across the globe. Finland topped the applicant list, with the UK coming in 5th place for the total number of submissions when ranked by country. Of those applying for e-Residency, 41% submitted an application in order to start a location independent international business, 27% were looking to bring business to Estonia, 13% stated they were advocates of the initiative and 8% applied to benefit from the programme’s secure authentication technology.

Kaspar Korjus concluded “Estonia is the first country creating a borderless digital society for global citizens by offering e-Residency. Anyone, regardless of nationality or location, can apply for the transnational, government-issued digital identity and benefit from a platform built on inclusion, legitimacy, and transparency.” Companies founded by e-Residents work in a range of industries. Of these sectors, business and management consultancy, computer programming, non-specialised trade, tech consultancy and business support services proved to be the most popular.

“By launching e-Residency, the Estonian government aimed to make Estonia bigger – to grow our digital economy and market with new customers, to spark innovation and attract new investments. We’re delighted with e-Residency's progress to date; but are even more excited to see how the project will grow in the future.”

About e-Residency

Estonia is the first country in the world creating a borderless digital society for global citizens by offering e-Residency. Everyone can apply for this transnational government-issued digital identity and benefit from the e-Residency platform, which is built on inclusion, legitimacy and transparency. E-Residency allows access to Estonia’s public e-services and a variety of e-services provided by international service providers. This provides the freedom for every world citizen to easily start and run a global EU company fully online from anywhere in the world.

E-residents can: open a company within a day and run the company remotely, apply for a business banking account and credit card, conduct e-banking, use international payment service providers, declare taxes, and sign documents digitally. E-Residency does not provide citizenship, tax residency, physical residency or the right to travel to Estonia or EU. The programme was launched in beta mode in December 2014 so that improvements could be made based on the experience of real e-residents already benefiting from the programme. At first, four visits to Estonia were required in order to become an e-resident, establish a company and open a bank account.

In recognition of the potential of e-Residency to help unleash the world’s entrepreneurial potential, the programme has also partnered with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development to launch eTrade For All, which uses e-Residency to empower entrepreneurs across the developing world and help them access e-commerce.

(Source: the Republic of Estonia)