WELLESLY, MA – The global market for biometrics was worth nearly $2 billion in 2006 and is expected to increase to $2.7 billion in 2007 and $7.1 billion by 2012, a CAGR of 21.3% over the next five years, according to a report from BCC Research.

Fingerprint biometrics will continue to be the main revenue contributor, worth $1.3 billion in 2007. This market is forecast to grow to $2.7 billion by 2012, a CAGR of 16.3% during the period.

The main reason for this growth is the decrease in price of fingerprint sensors, and government initiatives that rely heavily on fingerprint biometrics, BCC said.

The second largest segment is face recognition. This market will grow to $1.3 billion by 2012, from $459 million in 2007, a CAGR of 23.8%. Hand biometry will be the next largest segment in 2007 with market revenue of $243 million. By 2012, the market value for this segment will be $752.6 million, the firm reported.

The remaining biometric segments of iris scan, middleware, multimodality, voice recognition, signature verification and other emerging segments constituted $729 million in 2007. These segments are estimated to grow at a CAGR of 26% to $2.3 billion by 2012.

In terms of region, Europe currently leads the biometrics market because of higher user acceptance and the introduction of biometric passports in the majority of European countries. However, the highest potential lies in the Asian region where technologically developed countries such as South Korea and Japan, and growing countries such as China and India, will drive growth, BCC concludes.