An identifying code is a subset of vertices of a graph such that each vertex is uniquely determined by its neighbourhood within the identifying code. If $\M(G)$ denotes the minimum size of an identifying code of a graph $G$, it was conjectured by F.~Foucaud, R.~Klasing, A.~Kosowski and A.~Raspaud that if a connected graph $G$ has $n$ vertices and maximum degree~$d$ and admits an identifying code, then $\M(G)\leq n-\tfrac{n}{d}+O(1)$. We use probabilistic tools to show that for sufficiently large~$d$, $\M(G)\leq n-\tfrac{n}{\Theta(d)}$ holds for a large class of graphs containing, among others, all regular graphs and all graphs of bounded clique number. This settles the conjecture (up to constants) for these classes of graphs. In the general case, we prove $\M(G)\leq n-\tfrac{n}{\Theta(d^{3})}$. In a second part, we prove that in any graph $G$ of minimum degree~$\delta$ and girth at least~5, $\M(G)\leq(1+o_\delta(1))\tfrac{3\log\delta}{2\delta}n$. Using the former result, we give sharp estimates for the size of the minimum identifying code of random $d$-regular graphs, which is about $\tfrac{\log d}{d}n$.