All you have to do is look at the subject lines of our past blog posts to see that smart cards are used for all sorts of applications these days. Recently, IMS Research felt the need to closer examine the smart card’s rise in popularity. And what did they find out? That amazingly the number of smart cards on the planet will surpass the world’s population at some point during the year 2009. So, what does that mean? It means that on average, each person walking the globe will soon be in possession of more than one smart card.

The technology for smart cards originated around 1983. In the past 25 years, the cards have been integrated into more and more industries and applications. Padding the IMS Research stats is the fact that SIM cards for cell phones are technically considered smart cards. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of smart cards being carried around in people’s wallets. Consider the bank, government, and health sectors, for instance, where smart cards have become incredibly popular in the past few years for everything from debit cards to healthcare IDs, biometric passports, driver’s licenses, and more. Smart cards are also commonly used for student and employee ID programs, transportation cards, and for retail and loyalty programs. The IMS Research study forecasts continued growth for smart cards in all of these markets.