Countries with Data Privacy Laws – By Year 1973-2019

Abstract

For the past 46 years since 1973, countries around the world have enacted new data privacy laws at an average rate of 2.9 new countries per year, giving a total of 134 laws by April 2019.

This paper presents a year-by-year list, from 1973 to 2019, of when the 134 countries first enacted a data privacy law. A decade-by-decade graph of the numbers of new laws in each decade, and cumulative totals by decade-end, is also included. These tables and graphs enable some interesting questions to be answered, such as 'In which year(s) were the largest numbers of new laws enacted?', 'Which is the most recent year in which no new data privacy laws were enacted?'; and 'What is the rate of growth of countries with data privacy laws, decade-by-decade, and is growth increasing or slowing down?'.

Keywords: data protection, privacy