Global LEI Registrations: Which Countries Grew in Q2 2026?

The Q2 2026 result

The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation's quarterly reports contain two figures that are easy to blur together: newly registered LEIs during a quarter, and the active LEI population at quarter-end. They answer different questions.

Source: GLEIF Q1 2026 Global LEI System Business Report and GLEIF Q2 2026 Global LEI System Business Report. Percentage changes are our calculations from the published counts.

New registrations fell from the previous quarter, but the active stock still grew. The 91,955 new registrations exceeded the net increase in active records by 10,208. That gap should not be treated as a count of lapsed LEIs: the two metrics use different populations, and the quarterly report does not provide a reconciliation of every movement behind the difference.

The five largest active LEI populations

India, the United States, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom were the five largest country-level populations shown in both quarter-end reports. Together, they accounted for 1,284,419 active LEIs at the end of Q2, or 41.35% of the global active population.

These five jurisdictions supplied 55.31% of the global net increase in active LEIs during the quarter. India alone supplied 29.37%. A high percentage rate in a smaller jurisdiction may represent hundreds of records, while a similar rate in India represents tens of thousands.

The table compares active records at two quarter ends. It is not a table of new registrations, renewals or business formations.

Fast growth did not always mean a large active-stock gain

GLEIF's published Q2 growth ranking covers jurisdictions with at least 1,000 LEIs at the end of the previous quarter. Its growth rate is based on newly registered LEIs during the quarter. We calculated a separate net change from the active counts on the Q1 and Q2 maps.

The distinction is clearest in Brazil. GLEIF reported a 5.1% quarterly registration growth rate, yet the active population rose by only 38 between the two quarter ends. Both figures can be correct because one counts new registrations and the other measures the net movement in active records.

Read percentage rankings with an absolute count beside them. A rate without its population can make a small movement look more important than a much larger increase elsewhere.

What GLEIF means by active and growth

The GLEIF Business Reporting Dictionary defines an active LEI as a record whose entity status is ACTIVE and whose registration status is ISSUED, LAPSED, PENDING_TRANSFER or PENDING_ARCHIVAL.

A GLEIF “active LEI” is not necessarily current. A lapsed record can remain in the active-entity population. If you need to assess renewal status rather than registration volume, see our separate analysis of lapsed LEIs by country.

GLEIF's quarterly growth rate uses newly registered LEIs during the quarter relative to the prior active population. Our net active-stock change is simpler: Q2 quarter-end active records minus Q1 quarter-end active records. We keep the two measures separate throughout this analysis.

What jurisdiction means

The country label is the LEI record's legal jurisdiction, not necessarily the entity's headquarters, operating market or trading venue. GLEIF defines legal jurisdiction as the jurisdiction in which the entity was formed. It uses ISO 3166-1 country codes and selected ISO 3166-2 subdivision codes, as described in the GLEIF Accepted Legal Jurisdictions Code List.

This makes the country comparison useful for seeing where LEI records are legally registered. It does not show where those entities do business or where investors encounter them.

What the numbers say about LEI adoption

The global system expanded in Q2, but the pace of new registrations eased from Q1. The five largest populations contributed more than half of the net increase, with India doing most of the work.

The figures show where the LEI population grew. They do not measure LEI coverage among all businesses. The GLEIF reports do not provide a compatible denominator for the total number of eligible legal entities in each jurisdiction. We therefore cannot use these counts to say what percentage of businesses has an LEI.

Nor do raw counts tell you why an LEI was obtained. Requirements vary by transaction, market and counterparty. If you are checking your own position, start with when a business needs an LEI rather than assuming that a high-registration country creates a general obligation.

How to use these figures

Use the active-population totals when you need the size of the recorded LEI population at a point in time. Use the published growth rate when you want GLEIF's measure of new-registration momentum. Use the net change when you want to know how much the active stock actually moved between the two report dates.

For an individual company, aggregate country figures are the wrong tool. You can verify an LEI record in the official database and check its registration status, entity status and reference data. If the terminology is unfamiliar, our plain-English guide to LEI codes explains what the identifier does and what it does not prove.

You can also download the clean results table used for this comparison.

Method and limitations

We transcribed the global metrics and jurisdiction counts from GLEIF's Q1 and Q2 2026 Global LEI System Business Reports, then calculated changes using integer arithmetic. The source reports were released on 28 April and 23 July 2026. Q2 2026 was the latest quarterly business report available when we checked on 6 October 2026.

The largest-population table includes the five countries with the highest active counts shown in both reports. The growth table reproduces GLEIF's five fastest published jurisdiction rates for Q2 and places them beside independently calculated net active-stock changes.

The comparison covers two quarter ends, not a long-term trend. GLEIF can update LEI reference data after a reporting date, and legal-jurisdiction coding does not describe the full geographic footprint of an entity. We have not estimated business-population coverage, causation or the exact reasons for the difference between registrations and net active-stock growth.

Frequently asked questions

How many active LEIs were there at the end of Q2 2026?

GLEIF reported 3,106,013 active LEIs at the end of Q2 2026. That was 81,747 more than the 3,024,266 reported at the end of Q1.

Which country had the most active LEIs?

India had the largest country-level population in the Q2 report, with 369,301 active LEIs. The United States followed with 334,629.

Is GLEIF's growth rate the same as the change in active LEIs?

No. GLEIF's quarterly growth rate measures newly registered LEIs relative to the prior active population. The net change in active LEIs compares the active count at two quarter ends.

Do these counts show the percentage of businesses with an LEI?

No. A coverage rate needs a compatible count of eligible businesses for the same jurisdiction and date. The quarterly reports do not provide that denominator.