In its transparency report released yesterday, Google said governments around the world made 40,677 requests related to more than 81,000 accounts in the July-December period.
That compared with just over 35,000 requests in the prior six-month period on nearly 69,000 accounts.
"Usage of our services have increased every year, and so have the user data request numbers," Google said.
Google said it turned over at least some data in 64 percent of the cases.
The United States accounted for the largest share, with 12,523 requests, followed by Germany (7,491), France (4,174) and Britain (3,497).
Also Read
"Google is proud to have led the charge on publishing these reports, helping shed light on government surveillance laws and practices across the world," said Google legal director Richard Salgado.
Salgado said in a blog post that a recent US-EU agreement on privacy was a positive development because it extends protection in the United States to non-Americans.
"This shift helps address concerns about the ability of non-US persons to redress grievances concerning data collected and stored by the US government under US law," he said.