History Hans Högman
Copyright © Hans Högman 2020-07-16

Personal Identity Numbers - Sweden

Swedish Personal Identity Numbers / Personnummer

Introduction

Every Swedish citizen has an unique Personal Identity Number (PIN). It is also referred to as Citizen's Codes. In Sweden it is called Personnummer. The system with Personnummer was introduced in Sweden in 1947. Every person born in Sweden are allocated a "personnummer" when they are born. People born before 1947 were also allocated a PIN that year. The personal identity numbers consisted in the beginning of two parts; the birth date and a birth number. In 1967 a control digit / check digit were added to the PIN. Also immigrants are allocated personal identity numbers. PINs are issued by the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) as part of the National Population Register (Folkbokföring). The PIN is used by authorities, by health care, schools and universities. Also used by banks (needing it by law for tax purposes and mandatory customer identification) and insurance companies (needing it for car liability insurance and for medical travel insurance coordination). Other companies often ask for it in return for a post-paid service, like a telephone subscription, to be able to check e.g. the person's credit record or address or if needed to perform debt collection. The PIN is printed on driving licenses, passports and ID cards, under the header Personnummer.

PINs - Structure

The format of the personal identity numbers consist from 1967 (when the system was computerized) of three parts; birth date, birth number and a check digit; in total 10 digits and a hyphen. For example: 001219-3421 Format: YYMMDD-nnnC where: YYMMDD is the date of birth and means: YEAR, MONTH and DAY (6 digits) nnn is a serial number and are referred to as birth number (3 digits) , 001 - 999. It is an odd number for men and an even number for women. Each County (Län) used to have their own series of birth numbers but from 1990 there is a national series. C is the check digit. Between the birth date and the birth number there is a hyphen (-). This sign is a hyphen (-) if a person's age is less the 100 years old. If the person is 100 years old or more the sign is a plus sign (+). A person born on December 19, 2000 might have a "personnummer" as follows: 001219-3421 00 is the year 2000, 12 stands for December and 19 for the day (December 19). By looking at the birth number, 342, we can tell that this is a baby girl (even number). If the person was born on December 19, 1900 the PIN could be: 001219+3421 (with a plus sign).

The Birth Number

For example:

A person born before 1990 and has birth number 3412 (after the dash) were born in Blekinge län (34) and is a male (1).

12 digits PINs

Some county authorities, such as Stockholm county, and some banks, have began using 12 digit numbers to allow YYYYMMDD.

The check digit

Both the birth date and the birth number is used when the check digit is calculated. The check digit is then added to the birth number as a fourth digit. The method used for calculating the check digit is called the modulus-10-method. If we use the PIN mentioned above, a person born on December 19, 2000 (001219-342) we will get the check digit as follows: 1: 0x2 + 0x1 + 1x2+ 2x1 + 1x2 + 9x1 + 3x2 + 4x1 + 2x2 = 2: 0 + 0 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 9 + 6 + 4 + 4 = 29 3: 10 - 9 = 1 (where 9 is the single unit in 29) 4: The check digit is 1. The PIN will be: 001219-3421 1. The numbers in the birth date and the birth number is alternately multiplied by 2 and 1. 2. The digits in each product are then added up in a total sum. If a product is larger then 9, each digit in the number is used. For example, the number 13 will be 1 + 3. 3. The single unit in the sum is subtracted from the number 10. 4. The reminder will be the check digit. If the remainder is 10, then 0 will be used a the check digit.

Personal Identity Numbers in Other Countries

United States

In USA the Social Security Number (SSN) is a personal identity number comparable to the Swedish PIN. The US SSN is issued to US citizens, permanent residents and temporary (working) residents. The number is issued to an individual by the Social Security Administration. Although its primary purpose is to track individuals for Social Security purposes, the Social Security number has become a de facto national identification number for taxation and other purposes. Social Security numbers were first issued by the Social Security Administration in November 1935. Format: The Social Security number is a nine-digit number in the format "AAA-GG-SSSS" and is divided into three parts. The first three digits, the area number, is assigned by geographical region. The middle two digits are the group number and range from 01 to 99. The last four digits are serial numbers. They represent a straight numerical sequence of digits from 0001 to 9999 within the group.

United Kingdom

The UK National Insurance Number is a number used in the administration of the National Insurance or Social Security System. It is also used for some purposes in the UK tax system. The number is described by the United Kingdom government as a "personal account number". As it is the only number allocated to almost every adult resident of the country, it is used for some limited purposes to check identity. The number is sometimes referred to as a NI No or NINO. People born and resident in the UK are assigned a Child Reference Number shortly after birth when a claim is made for Child Benefit. At age 15 years 9 months HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) notifies each child of their NI number. Persons from abroad who wish to work in the UK, or those to whom a number was not initially allocated as children, must apply for a number through the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The prefixes used are typically different from those used in the normal run. Format: The format of the number is two prefix letters, six digits, and one suffix letter. The example used is typically AB123456C. Often, the number is printed with spaces to pair off the digits, like this: AB 12 34 56 C.

Denmark

The Danish identity numbers are officially called personnummer, but also CPR numbers (Det Centrale Personregister) och was computerized in 1968. The CPR number is used in dealings with public agencies, from health care to the tax authorities. It is also used as a customer number in banks and insurance companies. People must be registered with a CPR number if they reside in Denmark, if they own property or if they pay tax. The CPR number is a ten-digit number with the format DDMMYY-SSSS, where DDMMYY is the date of birth and SSSS is a sequence number. The first digit of the sequence number encodes the century of birth, and the last digit of the sequence number is odd for males and even for females. The Danish CPR numbers are very similar to the Swedish personnummer. However, the six first digits are with the format DDMMYY while the Swedish are with the format YYMMDD. Foreigners who are not eligible to get a CPR-number, but who need one, includes persons who have witnessed a crime, persons who have been charged with a crime, or are victims of a crime. These persons are registered with a CPR-number (ersättningspersonnummer) with the format: DDMMYY-XXXX where XXXX are four letters instead of four numbers.

Finland

The Finish identity numbers are called henkilötunnus (HETU) or personbeteckning in Swedish and was introduced in 1964. Finland has two official languages, Finnish and Swedish. The HETU number consists of 11 characters of the form DDMMYYCZZZQ, where DDMMYY is the date of birth, C the century sign, ZZZ the individual number and Q the control character (checksum). The individual number ZZZ is odd for males and even for females. An example of a valid code is 311280-888Y. A Personal Identity Code is given to every Finnish citizen born in Finland. Foreign citizens whose residence in Finland is permanent or exceeds more than one year are also issued a personal identity code by law.

Norway

The personal identity number in Norway are called födelsenummer (Birth Number). It consists of 11 digits and is composed of the date of birth (DDMMYY), a three-digit individual number (odd for males and even for females), and two check digits. Format: DDMMYY nnnKK. The birth numbers are assigned at birth or registration with the National Population Register. People without permanent residence in Norway will be assigned a D-number upon registration in the population register. The D-number is like a birth number having 40 added to the day of month.

France

The French identity numbers are called NIR (Numéro d'inscription au Répertoire) or in full NIRPP (numéro d'inscription au répertoire des personnes physiques). It is composed of 13 digits + a two-digit key. The first digit is 1 for males and 2 for women. The first digit is followed by 4 digits for year of birth and month of birth. Then there are 3 digits for department of birth (county), 3 digits for place of birth and a 2-digit checksum. In total 15 digits. The NIR number was introduced in 1944. Another term for NIR is INSEE code (INSEE = French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies). Each French person receives at birth a national identification number, NIR (English: National Repertory Registration).

The Netherlands

The identity numbers in the Netherlands are called Burgerservicenummer or short BSN (Citizen's Service Number). All people in the Netherlands receive a BSN when they are born. It is printed on driving licenses, passports and international ID cards, under the header Personal Number. The BSN consists of 9 digits. The 9th digit is a checksum. The BSN does not contain any information about the person to whom it is assigned (i.e. no information, such as gender or date of birth). Before 2007, the BSN was known as sofinummer (sociaal-fiscaal nummer).

Belgium

In Belgium every citizen has a National Register Number (nl: Rijksregisternummer / fr: Numéro de registre national), which is created by using the citizen's date of birth (encoded in six digits), followed by a serial number (three digits) and a checksum (two digits). The serial number is used so that men get the odd numbers, while women get the even numbers; thus, there can be only 500 men or women on each day. The national number is unique to each person and in that capacity used by most government institutions.

Germany

In Germany, there is no national identification number in the full meaning of the term. For some time, the West German government intended to create a 12-digit personal identification number (Personenkennzeichen, PKZ) for all citizens, registered alien residents on its territory. The system, which was to be implemented by the 1973 federal law on civil registry, was rejected in 1976, when the Bundestag found the concept of an identification system for the entire population to be incompatible with the existing legal framework. German identity documents do not contain any identity numbers, only a document number.

Austria

In Austria there is a social insurance number which also is a personal identity number. All Austrian citizens receive a social insurance number when they are born. It consists of 4 digits, space and 6 further digits (date of birth with the format DDMMYY), for example 1234 311279.

Canada

A social insurance number, SIN, is a number issued in Canada to administer various government programs. The SIN was created in 1964 to serve as a client account number in the administration of the Canada Pension Plan and Canada's varied employment insurance programs. The SIN is formatted as three groups of three digits (e.g., 123-456-789). The first digit refers to the province of issue. The last digit is a checksum. The SIN does not contain any information about the person to whom it is assigned (i.e. no information, such as gender or date of birth). The SIN has become a National Identification Number, in much the same way that the Social Security Number has in the United States. Social Insurance Numbers that begin with the number "9" are issued to temporary residents who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents.

Source References

Skatteverket Internet Site (The Swedish Tax Agency) Wikipedia Article in the Swedish morning paper DN on 2016-04-06 Top of page
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History Hans Högman
Copyright © Hans Högman 2020-07-16

Personal Identity

Numbers - Sweden

Swedish Personal Identity

Numbers / Personnummer

Introduction

Every Swedish citizen has an unique Personal Identity Number (PIN). It is also referred to as Citizen's Codes. In Sweden it is called Personnummer. The system with Personnummer was introduced in Sweden in 1947. Every person born in Sweden are allocated a "personnummer" when they are born. People born before 1947 were also allocated a PIN that year. The personal identity numbers consisted in the beginning of two parts; the birth date and a birth number. In 1967 a control digit / check digit were added to the PIN. Also immigrants are allocated personal identity numbers. PINs are issued by the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) as part of the National Population Register (Folkbokföring). The PIN is used by authorities, by health care, schools and universities. Also used by banks (needing it by law for tax purposes and mandatory customer identification) and insurance companies (needing it for car liability insurance and for medical travel insurance coordination). Other companies often ask for it in return for a post-paid service, like a telephone subscription, to be able to check e.g. the person's credit record or address or if needed to perform debt collection. The PIN is printed on driving licenses, passports and ID cards, under the header Personnummer.

PINs - Structure

The format of the personal identity numbers consist from 1967 (when the system was computerized) of three parts; birth date, birth number and a check digit; in total 10 digits and a hyphen. For example: 001219-3421 Format: YYMMDD-nnnC where: YYMMDD is the date of birth and means: YEAR, MONTH and DAY (6 digits) nnn is a serial number and are referred to as birth number (3 digits) , 001 - 999. It is an odd number for men and an even number for women. Each County (Län) used to have their own series of birth numbers but from 1990 there is a national series. C is the check digit. Between the birth date and the birth number there is a hyphen (-). This sign is a hyphen (-) if a person's age is less the 100 years old. If the person is 100 years old or more the sign is a plus sign (+). A person born on December 19, 2000 might have a "personnummer" as follows: 001219-3421 00 is the year 2000, 12 stands for December and 19 for the day (December 19). By looking at the birth number, 342, we can tell that this is a baby girl (even number). If the person was born on December 19, 1900 the PIN could be: 001219+3421 (with a plus sign).

The Birth Number

For example:

A person born before 1990 and has birth number 3412 (after the dash) were born in Blekinge län (34) and is a male (1).

12 digits PINs

Some county authorities, such as Stockholm county, and some banks, have began using 12 digit numbers to allow YYYYMMDD.

The check digit

Both the birth date and the birth number is used when the check digit is calculated. The check digit is then added to the birth number as a fourth digit. The method used for calculating the check digit is called the modulus-10-method. If we use the PIN mentioned above, a person born on December 19, 2000 (001219-342) we will get the check digit as follows: 1: 0x2 + 0x1 + 1x2+ 2x1 + 1x2 + 9x1 + 3x2 + 4x1 + 2x2 = 2: 0 + 0 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 9 + 6 + 4 + 4 = 29 3: 10 - 9 = 1 (where 9 is the single unit in 29) 4: The check digit is 1. The PIN will be: 001219-3421 1. The numbers in the birth date and the birth number is alternately multiplied by 2 and 1. 2. The digits in each product are then added up in a total sum. If a product is larger then 9, each digit in the number is used. For example, the number 13 will be 1 + 3. 3. The single unit in the sum is subtracted from the number 10. 4. The reminder will be the check digit. If the remainder is 10, then 0 will be used a the check digit.

Personal Identity Numbers in

Other Countries

United States

In USA the Social Security Number (SSN) is a personal identity number comparable to the Swedish PIN. The US SSN is issued to US citizens, permanent residents and temporary (working) residents. The number is issued to an individual by the Social Security Administration. Although its primary purpose is to track individuals for Social Security purposes, the Social Security number has become a de facto national identification number for taxation and other purposes. Social Security numbers were first issued by the Social Security Administration in November 1935. Format: The Social Security number is a nine-digit number in the format "AAA-GG-SSSS" and is divided into three parts. The first three digits, the area number, is assigned by geographical region. The middle two digits are the group number and range from 01 to 99. The last four digits are serial numbers. They represent a straight numerical sequence of digits from 0001 to 9999 within the group.

United Kingdom

The UK National Insurance Number is a number used in the administration of the National Insurance or Social Security System. It is also used for some purposes in the UK tax system. The number is described by the United Kingdom government as a "personal account number". As it is the only number allocated to almost every adult resident of the country, it is used for some limited purposes to check identity. The number is sometimes referred to as a NI No or NINO. People born and resident in the UK are assigned a Child Reference Number shortly after birth when a claim is made for Child Benefit. At age 15 years 9 months HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) notifies each child of their NI number. Persons from abroad who wish to work in the UK, or those to whom a number was not initially allocated as children, must apply for a number through the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The prefixes used are typically different from those used in the normal run. Format: The format of the number is two prefix letters, six digits, and one suffix letter. The example used is typically AB123456C. Often, the number is printed with spaces to pair off the digits, like this: AB 12 34 56 C.

Denmark

The Danish identity numbers are officially called personnummer, but also CPR numbers (Det Centrale Personregister) och was computerized in 1968. The CPR number is used in dealings with public agencies, from health care to the tax authorities. It is also used as a customer number in banks and insurance companies. People must be registered with a CPR number if they reside in Denmark, if they own property or if they pay tax. The CPR number is a ten-digit number with the format DDMMYY-SSSS, where DDMMYY is the date of birth and SSSS is a sequence number. The first digit of the sequence number encodes the century of birth, and the last digit of the sequence number is odd for males and even for females. The Danish CPR numbers are very similar to the Swedish personnummer. However, the six first digits are with the format DDMMYY while the Swedish are with the format YYMMDD. Foreigners who are not eligible to get a CPR-number, but who need one, includes persons who have witnessed a crime, persons who have been charged with a crime, or are victims of a crime. These persons are registered with a CPR-number (ersättningspersonnummer) with the format: DDMMYY-XXXX where XXXX are four letters instead of four numbers.

Finland

The Finish identity numbers are called henkilötunnus (HETU) or personbeteckning in Swedish and was introduced in 1964. Finland has two official languages, Finnish and Swedish. The HETU number consists of 11 characters of the form DDMMYYCZZZQ, where DDMMYY is the date of birth, C the century sign, ZZZ the individual number and Q the control character (checksum). The individual number ZZZ is odd for males and even for females. An example of a valid code is 311280-888Y. A Personal Identity Code is given to every Finnish citizen born in Finland. Foreign citizens whose residence in Finland is permanent or exceeds more than one year are also issued a personal identity code by law.

Norway

The personal identity number in Norway are called födelsenummer (Birth Number). It consists of 11 digits and is composed of the date of birth (DDMMYY), a three-digit individual number (odd for males and even for females), and two check digits. Format: DDMMYY nnnKK. The birth numbers are assigned at birth or registration with the National Population Register. People without permanent residence in Norway will be assigned a D-number upon registration in the population register. The D-number is like a birth number having 40 added to the day of month.

France

The French identity numbers are called NIR (Numéro d'inscription au Répertoire) or in full NIRPP (numéro d'inscription au répertoire des personnes physiques). It is composed of 13 digits + a two-digit key. The first digit is 1 for males and 2 for women. The first digit is followed by 4 digits for year of birth and month of birth. Then there are 3 digits for department of birth (county), 3 digits for place of birth and a 2-digit checksum. In total 15 digits. The NIR number was introduced in 1944. Another term for NIR is INSEE code (INSEE = French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies). Each French person receives at birth a national identification number, NIR (English: National Repertory Registration).

The Netherlands

The identity numbers in the Netherlands are called Burgerservicenummer or short BSN (Citizen's Service Number). All people in the Netherlands receive a BSN when they are born. It is printed on driving licenses, passports and international ID cards, under the header Personal Number. The BSN consists of 9 digits. The 9th digit is a checksum. The BSN does not contain any information about the person to whom it is assigned (i.e. no information, such as gender or date of birth). Before 2007, the BSN was known as sofinummer (sociaal-fiscaal nummer).

Belgium

In Belgium every citizen has a National Register Number (nl: Rijksregisternummer / fr: Numéro de registre national), which is created by using the citizen's date of birth (encoded in six digits), followed by a serial number (three digits) and a checksum (two digits). The serial number is used so that men get the odd numbers, while women get the even numbers; thus, there can be only 500 men or women on each day. The national number is unique to each person and in that capacity used by most government institutions.

Germany

In Germany, there is no national identification number in the full meaning of the term. For some time, the West German government intended to create a 12-digit personal identification number (Personenkennzeichen, PKZ) for all citizens, registered alien residents on its territory. The system, which was to be implemented by the 1973 federal law on civil registry, was rejected in 1976, when the Bundestag found the concept of an identification system for the entire population to be incompatible with the existing legal framework. German identity documents do not contain any identity numbers, only a document number.

Austria

In Austria there is a social insurance number which also is a personal identity number. All Austrian citizens receive a social insurance number when they are born. It consists of 4 digits, space and 6 further digits (date of birth with the format DDMMYY), for example 1234 311279.

Canada

A social insurance number, SIN, is a number issued in Canada to administer various government programs. The SIN was created in 1964 to serve as a client account number in the administration of the Canada Pension Plan and Canada's varied employment insurance programs. The SIN is formatted as three groups of three digits (e.g., 123- 456-789). The first digit refers to the province of issue. The last digit is a checksum. The SIN does not contain any information about the person to whom it is assigned (i.e. no information, such as gender or date of birth). The SIN has become a National Identification Number, in much the same way that the Social Security Number has in the United States. Social Insurance Numbers that begin with the number "9" are issued to temporary residents who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents.

Source References

Skatteverket Internet Site (The Swedish Tax Agency) Wikipedia Article in the Swedish morning paper DN on 2016-04-06 Top of page