National identication number

1.2 Nigeria

Not to be confused with Personal identication number.

The Nigerian National Identication Number (NIN) is

issued and managed by National Identity Management
Commission (NIMC), and its a set of eleven digits (e.g.:
XXXXXXXXXXX), assigned to 16+ years old Nigerians
and legal residents by the Government.

A national identication number, national identity

number, or national insurance number is used by the
governments of many countries as a means of tracking
their citizens, permanent residents, and temporary residents for the purposes of work, taxation, government
benets, health care, and other governmentally-related
functions. The number will appear on an identity document issued by a country.

1.3 South Africa

The ways in which such a system is implemented are dependent on the country, but in most cases, a citizen is issued an identication number at birth or when they reach
a legal age (typically the age of 18). Non-citizens may
be issued such numbers when they enter the country, or
when granted a temporary or permanent residence permit.
Many countries issued such numbers for a singular purpose, but over time, they become a de facto national identication number. For example, the United States developed its Social Security number system as a means
of disbursing Social Security benets. However, due to
function creep, the number has become used for other
purposes to the point where it is almost essential to have
one to, among other things, open a bank account, obtain
a credit card, or drive a car. Although some countries
are required to collect TIN/SSN information for overseas
payment procedures, some countries, like the US, are not
required to collect other nations TIN if other requirements are met, such as date of birth.[1][2] Authorities use
databases and they need a unique key in order to be sure
that data actually refer to the searched person. In countries where there is no established nation-wide number,
authorities need to create their own number for each per- South African identity document
son, although there is still a risk of mismatching people.

1
1.1

In the Republic of South Africa, every citizen must apply

for an Identity Document from the age of 16 years. The
ID number is already allocated at the time the birth certicate is generated and required for child passport applications. This passport-size document contains only 8 pages
- the rst page containing the national identication number (also in barcoded format), name of bearer, district or
country of birth, as well as a photograph of the bearer.
The other pages are used for recording of voting participation, a page for drivers license information (although
it is no longer used since the introduction of plastic card
type licenses), as well as pages for re arms licenses (also
plastic card type now). The document is required to apply
for a passport, car learners license (over 17), motorcycle

Africa
The Gambia

In The Gambia, the National Identication Number

(NIN) consists of 11 digits in the form DDMMYY-PG##CS. DD MM YY indicates date of birth, PG indicates
place of issuance and nationality, ## is a serial number
and also indicates sex and CS is a check sum.
1

AFRICA

A is 8 or 9. Prior to 1994 this number was used to

indicate the holders race;
Z is a checksum digit.
Using ID Number 8001015009087 as an example, it
would read as follows:
The ID indicates that a male citizen was born on 1 January
1980; he was the 10th male to be registered (assuming
that the rst male to be registered on that day would be
assigned the sequence number 5000).
The checksum digit is calculated using the Luhn algorithm:[3]
A = The sum of the digits in the ID number in the
odd positions (Excluding Z)
B = The number formed by the concatenation of the
digits in the ID number in the even positions
C = The sum of the digits in (2 * B)
D=A+C
Z = 10 - (D mod 10)
Explanation of identity number in a South African identity document during apartheid

1.3.2 Racial classication

learners license (over 16), driving license (over 18), motorcycle license (over 16 or 18 depending on cc) and to
vote (over 18). The Identity Document is not used for international travel purposes (a separate passport is issued)
but usually is acceptable photographic identication for
internal ights, and mainly serves as proof of identication. Some authorities may accept the drivers license as
proof of identity, but the Identity Document is the only
universally accepted form of identication.

During the apartheid era the second to last digit, A, denoted race. Since these documents were not then issued
to the majority population, the race code does not include those classied as Black.
A Classication:
0: White
1: Cape Coloured

1.3.1

Validation

A South African person identication number is a 13digit number containing only numeric characters, and no
whitespace, punctuation, or alpha characters. It is dened
as YYMMDDSSSSCAZ:
YYMMDD represents the date of birth (DoB);
SSSS is a sequence number registered with the same
birth date (where females are assigned sequential
numbers in the range 0000 to 4999 and males from
5000 to 9999);

2: Malay
3: Griqua
4: Chinese
5: Indian
6: Other Asian
7: Other Coloured

After about 1987, the racial classication was eliminated,

C is the citizenship with 0 if the person is a SA cit- and all existing numbers were reissued with new digits in
izen, 1 if the person is a permanent resident;
the last two elds (AZ).

2.3
1.3.3

Canada

specifying the state which issued the ID card), but it is

also possible to (legally) have more than one RG, from
In contrast to other countries the South African ID num- dierent states.
ber is not unique, at least because of the use of a two- The other system, the Cadastro de Pessoas Fsicas
digit year. Other issues with duplications exist:,[4] how- (CPF) is federal and supposedly unique (barring fraud),
ever the Department of Home Aairs HANIS Project[5] but it was created originally for purposes of taxation (a rehas planned to rectify that with ID smart cards. The time- lated system is used for companies, which is called Cadasline for that is undetermined as the last budget request for tro Nacional de Pessoas Jurdicas -CNPJ). One, the other
08/09 and 09/10 included requests for budget for it[6] de- or both numbers are required for many common tasks in
spite the project being active since 1997.
Brazil, such as opening bank accounts or getting a drivers

HANIS

Americas

license. The RG system is more widespread, but its shortcomings have led to debate about merging both systems
into a new one, which would be based around the CPF.

Another type of registration is the Social Security Number, which is originated when a person creates one in the
National Social Security Institutes site[7] or starts to work
In Argentina the only nationally issued identication is for a company, when this one has to register the employee
the DNI, Documento Nacional de Identidad (National in the Social Integration Program.
Identity Document). It is a number not related to anything in particular about the person (except for immigrants who get assigned numbers starting at 92,000,000). 2.3 Canada
It is assigned at birth by the Registro Nacional de las Personas (National Registry for People), but parents need to Main article: Social Insurance Number
sign up their children, and because of this there are some
people, especially the poor, who do not have a DNI.
The use of the Social Insurance Number (SIN) as a
The ID is required for applying for credit, opening a bank de facto ID number ended in 2004 with passage of
account, and for voting. Law requires a person to show The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Dochis DNI when using a credit card. Prior to the DNI the uments Act.[8] There are only certain instances where an
LC (Libreta Cvica, for women), and LE (Libreta de En- organization may ask for a SIN (namely for tax or retirerolamiento, for men) were used. This was later unied in ment benet related issues). The SIN must be guarded as
the DNI.
condential personal information, and therefore cannot
[9]
For taxpaying purposes, the CUIT and CUIL (Cdigo be used as a general ID number.

2.1

Argentina

nico de Identicacin Tributaria, Unique Code for Taxpaying Identication and Cdigo nico de Identicacin
Laboral, Unique Code for Laboral Identication). An example of the ID is 20-10563145-8. It is based on the DNI
and appends 2 numbers at the beginning and one at the
end. For example, 20 and 23 for men, 27 for women,
and one control digit at the end. Employees have a CUIL
(assigned at the moment the DNI is created), and employers have a CUIT. The rst two digits to identify the
CUIT for companies are for instance: 30 or 33. If a person decides to open a company of its own, his CUIL usually becomes his CUIT. The CUIT was needed because
a dierent identication is required for companies, who
cannot be identied by a DNI number.

2.2

Brazil

2.4 Chile
In Chile the National Identication Number is called
RUN (Rol nico Nacional); but is usually called RUT
(Rol nico Tributario) and the number is the same. The
dierence between them is that RUT is also used for
juristic persons.
It is used as a national identication number, tax payer
number, social insurance number,drivers license number, for employment, etc. It is also commonly used as
a customer number in banks, retailers, insurance companies, airlines, etc. Until the end of August 2013, the
RUN was also used as the passport number. After this
date, Chilean passports have had unique numbers.
Since well before 1990, every baby born is given a RUN
number; previously it was assigned at the moment of applying to get the ID card. Non-Chilean residents also get
a RUN and an identication card. Every company or organization also must have a RUT for taxation purposes.

In Brazil there are two systems. The rst, the Registro

Geral (RG) is a number associated to the ocial ID card.
Although the ID cards are supposedly national, the RG
numbers are assigned by the states and a few other organizations, such as the armed forces. So, not only is it The RUN or RUT has 7 or 8 digits (for people alive today;
possible for a person to have the same RG number as a in the past, there were persons with a 5- or 6- digit one,
person from other state (which is usually dealt with by but have died o) plus a check digit or letter (xx.xxx.xxx-

ASIA

z, z is {0-9, K}).

number (SSN), a nine-digit number issued to U.S. citiCode (C#) for checking correctness of RUT can be found zens, permanent residents, and temporary (working) reson the here: http://www.vesic.org/english/blog/c-sharp/ idents. Its purpose was to identify individuals for the
purposes of Social Security, but it is now also used to
verifying-chilean-rut-code-tax-number/
track individuals for taxation purposes. There is no reCode (Clojure) for checking correctness of RUT can be quirement to have a SSN if it is not required for Social
found on the here: https://github.com/daplay/chileno
Security or taxation purposes, but in practice one is required for many other purposes, for example to open a
bank account or apply for a driving license, so that nearly
2.5 Colombia
all U.S. citizens and permanent residents have one. The
SSN has therefore become a de facto national identicaIn Colombia, each person is issued a basic ID card dur- tion number.[10]
ing childhood (Tarjeta de Identidad). The ID number includes the date of birth and a short serial number. Upon
reaching the age of 18, every citizen is reissued a citizen- 2.8 Venezuela
ship card (Cdula de Ciudadana), and the ID number on
it is used and required in all instances, public and private. In Venezuela the SAIME (DIEX) issue an ID card in the
Every Colombian national traveling abroad is issued a teens (Cdula de Identidad). The ID card includes the
passport document (which includes a passport number re- date of birth, a correlative number (population continues
lated to the national identication number); in this man- number for nationals, after 80.000.000 for foreigners resner foreign governments can track Colombian nationals idents), a photo, marital status, expedition date, expiry
date (a expiry ID card is still valid for nationals) and a
with their consulates.
nger print. The duration is 10 years.
There is as well a number assigned to companies:
NIT. Tributary Identication Number (for its Spanish Physical and companies has an RIF, (Fiscal information
acronym). Among other things, it is used for tax reports. Registry) for taxable purposes. For physical persons, it is
the ID number + checksum digit.
As of 2003 created the NUIP (Nmero nico de Identicacin Personal), starting the numbering per billion
(1,000,000,000).

3 Asia

2.6

Mexico

Main article: Unique Population Registry Code

In Mexico, the ID number is called the CURP (Clave
nica de Registro de Poblacin) although the most important and accepted ID card would be the election card
(credencial de elector or else credencial del INE, as
per the initials of Instituto Nacional Electoral/National
Institute of Elections, the institution responsible for electoral procedures). There are, however, other important
ID numbers in Mexico: for instance, the social security
number, which is the number assigned by Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (Mexican Institute of Social Security, or IMSS) to every citizen who starts working, or
the RFC (Registro Federal del Contribuyente) which is
assigned by the Treasury and has the same format as the
CURP but a shorter length.

2.7

United States

3.1 Bahrain
In Bahrain every citizen and resident must hold an
Identication Card (Arabic: ) and thus has a
Personal Number (Arabic: ) which consists
of 8 digits followed by a check digit (Total: 9 digits). In
general, it has the following format: YYMMNNNNC,
where YYMM is the year and month of birth, NNNN is
a random number, C is the check digit. However, a minority of citizens and residents have Personal Numbers
that do not follow that format.
It is possible to obtain a Distinctive Personal Number
(Arabic: ) , only for newborn infants and
it is optional and not compulsory, for a fee (US$130, 200,
or 260 depending on the category).
Another local name for the Personal number is Central
Population Registration (CPR) Number (Arabic:
)which was used before the inception of the Central Informatics Organization (CIO) (Arabic:
).

Main article: Social Security number

3.2 Peoples Republic of China

In the United States, a Selective Service Number must
be applied for by all male citizens turning age 18. An Main article: Resident Identity Card Identity card
optional national identity number is the Social Security number

3.5

Indonesia

In the PRC, an ID card is mandatory for all citizens

who are over 16 years old. The ID number has 18 digits and is in the format RRRRRRYYYYMMDDSSSC,
which is the sole and exclusive identication code for the
holder (an old ID card only has 15 digits in the format
RRRRRRYYMMDDIII). RRRRRR is a standard code
for the political division where the holder is born (county
or a district of a city), YYYYMMDD is the birth date of
the holder, and SSS is a sequential code for distinguishing
people with identical birthdates and birthplaces. The sequential code is odd for males and even for females. The
nal character, C, is a checksum value over the rst 17
digits. To calculate the checksum, each digit in order is
multiplied by a weight in the ordered set [7 9 10 5 8 4 2 1
6 3 7 9 10 5 8 4 2] and summed together. The sum modulus 11 is used as an index into the ordered set [1 0 X 9 8
7 6 5 4 3 2], with the rst index being zero. The indexed
value is the checksum digit. In 15 digit IDs, III is an identication number created through certain mathematical
methods (the last digit might be an English letter, such as
X). The ID card is used for residential registration, army
enrollment registration, registration of marriage/divorce,
going abroad, taking part in national exams, and other
social or civil matters.

5
(UIDAI) to issue a Unique Identication Number to all
citizens and residents of India. This Authority is headed
by Nandan Nilekani, former CEO of Infosys. This Authority will issue the rst unique number within 12 to 18
months of its creation.
The AADHAR project will give each Indian citizen a
unique 12 digit identication number, along with recording their biometrics such as iris scan and ngerprints on
a chip in the card that will be rolled out to all eligible citizens. The rst Aadhaar number was launched in
Maharashtra in the village of Tembli, on 29 September
2010.So far up to 2014 720 million Aadhar Numbers
have been issued. Further it is expected to cross 1 billion mark by end of 2015 < The Economics Times 23rd
December, 2014>.

3.5 Indonesia

In Indonesia, 16 digit number is used as a unique number

for each citizens. It is known as Nomor Induk Kependudukan. The number is given to all Indonesian citizen.
The format is PPRRSSDDMMYYXXXX where PP is 2
digits province code, RR is 2 digits regency or city code,
SS is 2 digits sub-district code, DDMMYY is date of
birth, and XXXX is 4 digits computerized number. The
number is stated in Indonesian identity card. add with
individual state code as per issue state a unique no of dis3.3 Hong Kong
trict. and its no to be reected from (like District no+state
In Hong Kong, a Hong Kong Identity Card (HKID) is No+India National N
mandatory for all residents aged over 11, subject to lim- This program is designed on the basis of UIDAI of Inited exceptions. HKID cards contain the bearers HKID dia. Though Indonesia started late,Indonesia National ID
number, of which the standard format is X123456(A). program is growing at much rapid pace and assumed to
X represents one or two letters of the alphabet. The nu- complete earlier than India due to smaller population.
merals may represent any Arabic number. A is the check
digit, which has 11 possible values from 0 to 9 and A. The
letters and numbers are not assigned arbitrarily. Addi- 3.6 Iran, Islamic Republic of
tionally, one can view the international securities identication numbers organization that helps assign ISIN codes In Iran, the National Identication Number is a 10-digit
to securities.
number in the format of XXX-XXXXXX-X; (e.g. 012345678-9). The government started NIDs and 10-digit
postal codes in 1989.

3.4

India

Various schemes had been proposed but were never implemented. The closest India has come to this is the
Permanent account number (PAN), issued by the Income
Tax Oce, for purposes of tracking income and income
taxes. It has now gained use as a means of identication for activities like getting a phone connection. A total of 204 million PANs have been allotted upto 31st
March, 2014 <Annual Report of Ministry of Finance
2013-14>.The MNIC project appears to be a strong contender for nation-wide implementation with pilots underway in 13 states, with specic focus on covering the border regions.

3.7 Israel
An Identity Number (Hebrew: Mispar Zehut)
is issued to all Israeli citizens at birth by the Ministry of
the Interior. It is composed of nine digits: a one-digit prex, seven digits, and a nal check digit. Blocks of numbers are distributed to hospitals, and individual numbers
are issued to babies upon discharge from hospital. Temporary residents (category A-5) are assigned a number
when they receive temporary resident status.

An Identity Card, (Hebrew: Teudat Zehut), bearing an

Identity Number, is issued to all residents over 16 years
The Indian Government has established an Author- old who have legal temporary or permanent residence staity called the Unique Identication Authority of India tus, including non-citizens.

3.8

ASIA

Kazakhstan

SIM, now called DSI) has become the unitary authority to

issue identity cards. It has adopted the above-mentioned
In Kazakhstan there is a 12-digit Individual Identica- numbering policy.
tion Number for natural persons (abbreviated in Kazakh:
Macaus Finance Department has also adopted identi, ZhSN; in Russian: , IIN, with rst 6 digcation number as a tax reporting number, for tax ling
its representing persons date of birth in the YYMMDD
purposes.
format) and a 12-digit Business Identication Number
ru:- for legal entities (companies).
3.11 Malaysia
Until its abolishment on 01 January 2013, the 12digit Taxpayers Registration Number (Kazakh:
; Russian:
,
usually abbreviated as , RNN) was more popular in
dealings with authorities as well as with businesses.

Main article: National Registration Identity Card Number (Malaysia)

In Malaysia, a 12-digit number (format: YYMMDD-SS###G, since 1991) known as the National Registration
Identication Card Number (NRIC No.) is issued to
citizens and permanent residents on a MyKad. Prior to
3.9 Kuwait
January 1, 2004, a separate social security (SOCSO) number (also the old IC number in format 'S#########', S
In Kuwait, the 12-digit national identication number is denotes state of birth or country of origin (alphabet or
the Civil Number (Arabic: ) , it follows the for- number), # is a 9-digit serial number) was used for social
mat (NYYMMDDNNNN), and is issued and put on the security-related aairs.
Civil ID and managed by Public Agency for Civil InforThe rst group of numbers (YYMMDD) are the date of
mation (PACI) Arabic: .
birth. The second group of numbers (SS) represents the
The Civil ID contains holders name in Arabic and En- place of birth of the holder - the states (01-13), the federal
glish, picture, gender, date of birth, current address and territories (14-16) or the country of origin (60-85). The
a digital memory.
last group of numbers (###G) is a serial number in an
The Civil Number is issued for citizens and residents, and unidentied pattern which is randomly generated. The
its used for a lot of tasks like opening a bank account, last digit (G) is an odd number for a male, while an even
getting free medical care or even for taking some tests number is given for a female.
like the IELTS exam. Passports can be used instead for
those who don't have Civil IDs like tourists.

3.12 Pakistan

3.10 Macau
In Macau, there are two types of ID cards: Permanent
Resident Identity Card (BIRP) and Non-Permanent Resident Identity Card (BIRNP). The identication number
has 8-digit standard format: NNNNNNN(N), where N is
a numeric digit 0-9. The rst numeric digit N has special
meaning, and it can be one of the following digits: '1', '5'
or '7'.
'1': the rst-time date of issuance of ID card to the
bearer was 1992 or later.
'5': the predecessor of the ID card is Portuguese National Identity Card (BI), issued by Macau Civil Authority.
'7': the predecessor of the ID card is Macau Identity
Card, issued by Macau Public Security Police.

Main article: National Database and Registration Authority

After the independence of Pakistan, Prime Minister
Liaquat Ali Khan launched the Personal Identity System
(PIS) program to issue national identication cards to the
citizens of Pakistan and Muslim refugees settling in Pakistan. Since the 1960s, Pakistan has been issuing National
Identity Card (commonly known by the acronym, NIC)
numbers to its citizens. These numbers are assigned at
birth when the parents complete the childs birth registration form (B-Form), and then a National Identity Card
(NIC) with the same number is issued at the age of 18.
Until, 2001 NIC numbers were 11 digits long. In 2001
2002, the National Database and Registration Authority
(NADRA), started issuing 13-digit NIC numbers along
with their new biometric ID cards. The rst 5 digits are
based on the applicants locality, the next 7 are serial
numbers, and the last digit is a check digit. The last digit
also indicates the gender of the applicant; an even number
indicates a female and an odd number indicates a male.
The old numbers are invalid as of 2004.

During Portuguese rule, Macau had no unied identication system, and several departments had the authority to
issue identity cards to Macau citizens and residents. Since
1992, the Identication Department (once known as As of 2012 NADRA has started to issue SMART ID

3.15

Sri Lanka

Cards which include an encrypted chip. The SMART

Card plan is to be extended to disburse social benets as
well as to allow the heirs of the card to get life insurance
at the death of the card holder.

idents Registration Number (

), which has the
form 000000-0000000. The rst seven digits have his/her
birthday and gender, where the rst six digits are in the
format YYMMDD and the seventh digit is determined by
Every citizen has an NIC number for activities such as the century and the gender as follows:
paying taxes, opening a bank account, getting a utility
1: Males, holding Korean nationality, born 1900
connection (phone, cell phone, gas, electricity). How1999.
ever, since a majority of births in the country are not
registered, and a large number of Pakistanis do not con 2: Females, holding Korean nationality, born 1900
duct any of the activities described above, most do not
1999.
have ID cards. Obtaining an NIC card costs 100 rupees
3: Males, holding Korean nationality, born 2000
(US$1.66 - almost the average daily income), and this re2099.
duces the number of people who can aord it. In 2006,
NADRA announced that it had issued 50 million CNIC
4: Females, holding Korean nationality, born 2000
(the C standing for Computerized) numbers, which is ap2099.
proximately one-third of the population. In June 2008,
5: Male foreigners sojourn in Korea, born 1900
the federal government announced it would start issuing
1999.
CNIC cards for free.
In addition to NIC/CNIC companies and individuals in
business and employment with taxable income are required to register with Central Board of Revenue and
have their National Tax Number (commonly known as
NTN). The tax number is mainly used only for taxation
purposes and is rarely used otherwise as compared to
other countries. New NTN certicates are being issued
with computerized NIC numbers and old NTN certicates bearing old NIC numbers will become invalid.[11]

6: Female foreigners sojourn in Korea, born 1900

1999.

3.13 Singapore

0: Females, holding Korean nationality, born before

1900.

7: Male foreigners sojourn in Korea, born 2000

2099.
8: Female foreigners sojourn in Korea, born 2000
2099.
9: Males, holding Korean nationality, born before
1900.

In Singapore the National Registration Identity Card

(NRIC) is issued to Singapore citizens and permanent (For example, a male citizen who was born in 27 May
residents. Permanent residents (PR) are issued with 2001 is assigned the number 0105273******, and a female citizen which was born in 24 March 1975 is assigned
NRIC number similar to citizens.
the number 7503242******.)
The NRIC contains a unique number that identies the
person holding it, and is used for almost all identication The next 4 digits mean the region of his/her birth registrapurposes in Singapore, including authentication when ac- tion, and the next 1 digit is a serial number of registration
cessing the Singapore governments web portal. Citizens within the date and the region. The last digit is a check
and permanent residents are issued with identity number digit.
starts with prex S (born before 2000) and T (born in
or after year 2000), followed with a 7-digit number and a
checksum alphabet. For citizens and permanent residents 3.15 Sri Lanka
born after 1968, the rst two digits of the 7-digit number
In Sri Lanka, all citizens over the age of 16 need to apindicate their birth year.
ply for a National Identity Card (NIC). Each NIC has
Long-term pass holders (e.g. people holding work per- a unique 10 digit number, in the format 000000000A
mits, employment passes or student passes) are issued a (where 0 is a digit and A is a letter). The rst two digits of
similarly formatted Foreign Identication Number (FIN) the number are your year of birth (e.g.: 88xxxxxxxx for
on their long-term passes, with prex F (registered before someone born in 1988). Add 500 to middle 3 numbers
year 2000) and G (registered in or after year 2000).
after rst two numbers for femails. The nal letter is generally a 'V' or 'X'. An NIC number is required to apply for
a passport (over 16), driving license (over 18) and to vote
3.14 South Korea
(over 18). In addition, all citizens are required to carry
their NIC on them as proof of identity. NICs are not isMain article: Resident registration number
sued to non-citizens, but they too are required to carry
some form of photo identication (such as a photocopy
In South Korea, every Korean resident is assigned a Res- of their passport or foreign driving license).

EUROPE

3.16 Taiwan

4 Europe

In Taiwan, an ID card is mandatory for all citizens who

are over 14 years old. Every citizen has a unique ID number. The ID card has been uniformly numbered since
1965. A valid National Identication number consists
of one letter and nine-digits, in the format A########C.
The letter (A) records the card holders rst location of
household registration, which is usually where they were
born. The rst digit depends on gender; 1 for male, 2 for
female. The last digit (C) is a checksum. Thus the total
number of IDs is 208,000,000.[12]

4.1 Albania

In Thailand, the Population Identication Code has

been issued by the Department of Provincial Administration of the Ministry of Interior since 1976. It consists of a
13-digit string in the format N-NNNN-NNNNN-NN-N,
which is assigned at birth or upon receiving citizenship.
The rst digit signies type of citizenship, the second to
fth the oce where the number was issued, the sixth
to twelfth are group and sequence numbers, and the last
digit acts as a check digit.

The Albanian Identity Number is a unique personal identication number of 10 characters in the format YYMMDDSSSC, where YYMMDD indicates the date of birth
and sex (for males MM is 01-12, for females 50 is added
to the month of birth so that MM is 51-62), SSS is a sequence number of persons born on the same date (001
999), and C is a checksum letter (AW). The YY part of
the date of birth is calculated from the following table:[14]

In Albania, the Identity Number (Albanian: Numri i

Identitetit (NID)) is issued by the Central Civic Registry
Service (Ministry of Interior). The coding structure and
algorithm is regulated by a decision of the Council of
Ministers of Albania (No.827, Dated 11.12.2003). From
2004 to 2007, the Identity Number was referred to as the
Citizen Identity Number (Albanian: Numri i Identitetit t
Shtetasit (NISH)). As of 2007 with the introduction the
The letter usage (i.e., indicating the household registra- new legislation regarding the new biometric ID Cards and
tion location) is as follows:
biometric passports, it is referred to as the Identity Number. The Albanian national identication number appears
in the Albanian national ID Cards and biometric pass3.17 Thailand
ports under the 'personal no.' section.

3.18 United Arab Emirates

The Emirates Identity Authority (Arabic:
) issues an Identity Card (Arabic: ) to each
citizen and resident. The cardholders name, nationality,
gender and date of birth are printed on the card. The
card also bears a unique 15-digit Identication Number
(Arabic: ) , which is used for identity verication by the government and some private entities. Inside
the card is an electronic chip which contains personal and
biometric data about the cardholder.[13]

e.g. For people born in the year 2003, YY would be K3.

4.2 Austria
In Austria there are two schemes to identify individuals:
4.2.1 Sector-Specic Personal Identier

The Sector-Specic Personal Identier (ssPIN) tries to do

away with the problems of the SSN. Its legal foundation is
the Austrian E-Government Act,[15] and it is derived from
the Central Register of Residents (CRR). Its specication
[16]
The Identication Number has the following format: is related with the Austrian Citizen Card.
784-YYYY-NNNNNNN-C, where 784 is the ISO 3166- Its computation (specication)[17] is a two-stage pro1 numeric code for the UAE, YYYY is the year of birth, cess: The CCR ID is encoded into the Source IdentiNNNNNNN is a random 7-digit number, and C is a cation Number (Source PIN) with a symmetrical cryptocheck digit.
function. This is again one-way encoded into the ssPIN

3.19 Vietnam
In Vietnam a Vietnam ID Card (Vietnamese: Giy
ng minh nhn dn), simply in Vietnamese the
CMND, is issued by Provincial Police Department for
Vietnamese citizen. The ID Card number is a combination of 9 digits. The rst 3 digits are for categorizing
Provincial Police Department. For example: the ID Card
No.: 012-885-652 is issued for Vietnamese citizen residing in Hanoi, because the code 012 is for Hanoi citizens.
The expiry date of the ID Card is 15 years.

per sector of governmental activity. For the storage of

SourcePINs is not limited to citizen cards, and an application cannot convert a ssPIN from one sector to the ssPIN
from applications of other sectors, the link-up of data of
sectors by PINs is constricted. However, there is a legal exception to this rule: applications may query for and
store ssPINs from other sectors if they are encrypted in
a way, that makes them only usable in the target application. This enables the application to communicate across
sectors.
Sample values

4.5

Bulgaria

CCR-ID: 000247681888 (12-digit)

SourcePIN:
MDEyMzQ1Njc4OWFiY2RlZg==
(24 bytes base64)

9
request new UMCN where the RR part is represented by
the region where they were rst registered.

ssPIN(BW): MswQO/UhO5RG+nR+klaOTsVY+CU=4.5 Bulgaria

(28 bytes base64)
Main article: Uniform civil number
BW (Bauen + Wohnen) is the public sector related to construction and habitation.
Every citizen or permanent resident of Bulgaria has
There are approximately 30 sectors like health, a unique 10-digit Uniform Civil Number (Bulgarian:
, Edinen grazhdanski
taxes, statistics, and security.
nomer, usually abbreviated as , EGN), generated
from the persons date of birth (encoded in six digits in the
4.3 Belgium
form YYMMDD), followed by a three-digit serial number and a single-digit checksum. The last digit of serial
In Belgium every citizen has a National Number, which number indicates gender: odd numbers are used for feis created by using the citizens date of birth (encoded in males and even numbers for males.
six digits), followed by a serial number (three digits) and
For persons born prior to 1900, the month identier (third
a checksum (two digits). The serial number is used so
and fourth digits) is increased by 20 (e.g. 952324XXXX
that men get the odd numbers, while women get the even
denotes a person born on 24 March 1895). Similarly,
numbers; thus, there can be only 500 men or women on
40 is added to denote that a person was born after 1999
each day.
(e.g. 054907XXXX denotes a person born on 7 SeptemThe national number is unique to each person and in that ber 2005).
capacity used by most government institutions; however,
EGNs were introduced in 1977 and are used in virtubecause one can immediately read the date of birth and
ally all dealings with public service agencies, and often
the sex of the numbers holder and because it is the key
with private businesses. EGNs are also printed on Bulin most government databases (including that of the tax
garian identity cards and passports, under the heading
administration, the social security, and others), it is con"/Personal number.
sidered a privacy-sensitive number. For that reason, although it is put on the identity card by default, with the
old ID cards a citizen could request that this would not
4.6 Croatia
be done. With the newer Digital ID cards that Belgium
is rolling out, this is no longer possible, since the National Number is used as the serial number for the private Main article: Personal identication number (Croatia)
cryptography keys on the card..
In Croatia, the Personal Identication Number (Croatian:
Osobni identikacijski broj (OIB)), is used for identify4.4 Bosnia and Herzegovina
ing the citizens and legal persons in many government
and civilian systems. The OIB-system was introduced
Main article: Unique Master Citizen Number
on January 1, 2009 and replaced the old JMBG system,
renamed to Master Citizen Number (Croatian: Matini
broj graana (MBG)) in 2002, that was used in former
Each citizen receives 13 number Unique Master Citi- Yugoslavia. The OIB consists of eleven random digits
[18]
zen Number (Bosnian: Jedinstveni matini broj graana) and the last number is a control number. Although the
OIB
is
in
use,
the
MBG
is
still
issued
and
used for data
upon birth. Unique Master Citizen Number comprises
[19]
coordination
among
government
registries.
13 digits in DDMMYYY RR XXX C format. DDMMYYY represents citizens birth date. RR indicates one
of 10 Bosnian regions (10: Banja Luka, 11: Biha, 12:
Doboj, 13: Gorade, 14: Livno, 15: Mostar, 16: Prije- 4.7 Czech Republic/Slovakia
dor, 17: Sarajevo, 18: Tuzla, 19: Zenica) where the citizen was born. XXX is a unique sequential number where Czech Republic uses a system called Birth Number
000 - 499 is used for males and 500 - 999 for females. (Czech: rodn slo (R)).
The nal number is a check-sum.
The form is YYXXDD/SSSC, where XX=MM (month
Foreign citizens born or residing in Bosnia & Herzegovina can also receive a Unique Master Citizen Number
(UMCN). The RR sequence foreign nationals is 01. Upon
gaining Bosnian citizenship, a former foreign national can

of birth) for male (numbers 01-12) and XX=MM+50 for

female (numbers 51-62), SSS is a serial number separating persons born on the same date and C is a check digit.
The whole number must be divisible by 11.

10

EUROPE

For people born before 1 January 1954 the form is tion for their CVR).
YYXXDD/SSS (without the check digit). This enables Government entities are numbered in a variety of ways,
the system to work until the year 2054.
but since 2003 all government entities (however small)
The system was introduced in the former Czechoslovakia. now have EAN numbers for billing purposes. Some GovSlovakia uses the same system.
ernment entities also have CVR numbers. Only one GovThe system is raising privacy concerns, since the age and ernment Entity (the Queen) has a CPR number.
the gender of the bearer can be decoded from the number. Therefore the birth number is considered a sensitive
piece of personal information. The Czech Republic is
introducing a new system of agenda-specic person identiers.

The CPR number gives government agencies access to

state-controlled databases with information about the
person. The information includes: The persons marital
status and spouse, parents, children, current and former
addresses, the cars the person has owned, the criminal
record and other information about the person.

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,
Main article: Personal identication number (Denmark) or are victims of a crime. These persons are registered
with a CPR-number with the format: DDMMYY-XXXX
A Personal Identication Number (Da. CPR, Det Cen- where XXXX are four letters instead of four numbers.
trale Personregister) in Denmark 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 4.9 Estonia
companies. People must be registered with a CPR number if they reside in Denmark, if they own property or if In Estonia, a Personal Identication Code (Estonian:
isikukood (IK)) is dened as a number formed on the
they pay tax.
basis of the sex and date of birth of a person which allows
In Denmark, there has been a systematic registration the identication of the person and used by government
since 1924, however it was in 1968 that the electronic and other systems where identication is required, as well
CPR register was established.[20]
as by digital signatures using the nation ID-card and its
In the 1980s, the electronic system was exported to associated certicates. An Estonian Personal identicaKuwait, Jamaica, Malaysia, Thailand, Romania, Cyprus, tion code consists of 11 digits, generally given without
any whitespace or other delimiters. The form is GYYMEstonia, Latvia, Slovakia, and Saint Petersburg.[21]
The CPR number is a ten-digit number with the format MDDSSSC, where G shows sex and century of birth (odd
number male, even number female, 1-2 19th century, 3DDMMYY-SSSS, where DDMMYY is the date of birth
and SSSS is a sequence number. The rst digit of the 4 20th century, 5-6 21st century), SSS is a serial number
separating persons born on the same date and C a checksequence number encodes the century of birth (so that
centenarians are distinguished from infants, 0-4 in odd sum.

4.8

Denmark

centuries, 5-9 in even centuries), and the last digit of the

sequence number is odd for males and even for females.
Prior to 2007, the last digit was also a check digit such
that less than 240 SSSS values were available for any
given combination of gender and date of birth, but due
to an administrative practice of assigning Jan 1 and similar dates for immigrants with unknown date of birth, any
SSSS value consistent with gender and century of birth
may now be issued, even for birth dates prior to 2007.

4.10 European
Area/Switzerland

Economic

Within the European Economic Area and Switzerland, a

card known as the European Health Insurance Card is issued to any resident who so wishes, proving the right of
health care anywhere in the area. This card lists a code
called Identication Number, quite simply the national
Companies and other taxable non-humans are issued an identication number of the residence country, for Gereight-digit CVR number which is a mostly sequential many the health insurance number.
number, there is no dened rule preventing the issuance
of a CVR number with the same digits as a CPR number
of an unrelated person, so the type of number must al- 4.11 Finland
ways be indicated, but CPR are always 10-digit and CVR
8-digit. VAT registration numbers for Danish compa- In Finland, the Personal Identity Code (Finnish: Henkilnies are simply DK followed by the CVR number, but tunnus (HETU), Swedish: Personbeteckning), also
far from all CVR numbered entities are VAT registered known as Personal Identication Number, was introduced
(companies with no need for a VAT number, such as hold- in 1964 and it is used for identifying the citizens in goving companies, typically do not request a VAT registra- ernment and many corporate and other transactions. It

4.13

Germany

consists of eleven 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 sign for the century is either + (18001899), - (19001999), or A (20002099).
The individual number ZZZ is odd for males and even for
females and for people born in Finland its range is 002899 (larger numbers may be used in special cases). An
example of a valid code is 311280-888Y.
The control character is calculated as the remainder
of DDMMYYZZZ divided by 31, i.e. drop the century sign and divide the resulting nine digit number by
31. For remainders below ten, the remainder itself is
the control character, otherwise pick the corresponding
character from string 0123456789ABCDEFHJKLMNPRSTUVWXY. For example 311280888 divided by 31
gives the remainder as 30, and since A=10, B=11, etc.
ending up with Y=30.[22]
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. The Personal Identity Code is a means to distinguish between individuals having the same name. It can be found in some
public documents (such as the deed of purchase of real
estate). Therefore knowing the code should not be used
as a proof of identity, although this sometimes happens
in the commercial sector. Employers need the personal
identity code to report payment of wages to Finnish Tax
Administration, the pension funds, etc.

11

4.13 Germany
In Germany, there was no national identication number
until 2007. Only decentralized databases were kept by social insurance companies, who allocate a social insurance
number to almost every person.
Since 2008 new Taxpayer Identication Numbers replace
the former Tax File Number. Persons who are both
employees and self-employed at the same time may receive two taxpayer identication numbers. The respective number for organizations, also issued by the tax administration, is named economy identication number.
These numbering concepts are national systems, organized by the Federal Central Tax Oce. For special purpose further value-added tax identication numbers are
issued for persons and organizations that are subject to
paying VAT as a deduct from their revenues. This is a
Europe-wide unied concept. Additionally for all persons
joining the military service, a Service Number is issued.
None of these numbers are commonly used for other than
their specic purpose, nor is such (ab)use legal. German
identity documents do not contain any of the mentioned
numbers, only a document number. People are not expected to know their number when dealing with an authority, so there are some troubles about people being
mismatched.

For some time, the West German government intended

to create a 12-digit personal identication number (Personenkennzeichen, PKZ) for all citizens, registered alien
residents on its territory, as well as for all non-resident
The number is shown in all forms of valid identication: Nazi victims entitled to compensation payments. The
system, which was to be implemented by the 1973 federal law on civil registry, was rejected in 1976, when the
National ID card
Bundestag found the concept of an identication system
for the entire population to be incompatible with the ex Electronic national ID card (with a chip)
isting legal framework.[23] In East Germany, a similar system named Personenkennzahl (PKZ) was set up in 1970
Drivers license (old A6-size and new credit card- and remained in use until the state ceased to exist in 1990.
size)
Passport

4.14 Greece

In Greece, there are a number of national identication

During 19641970 the personal identity code was known numbers.
as Sosiaaliturvatunnus (SOTU, Social Security number). The term is still widely in use unocially (and in The standard identity card, which has the format Acorrectly).
999999 where A can be any of the 24 letters of the
Greek alphabet, is issued to all Greek citizens at the
age of 12.

4.12 France

Main article: INSEE code

In France, the INSEE code is used as a social insurance
number, a national identication number, for taxation
purposes, for employment, etc. It was invented under the
Vichy regime.

New Greek identity cards have a number formatted

like this: XX-999999 where X is a letter, whose uppercase glyph occurs in both the Greek and the Latin
alphabet (ABEZHIKMNOPTYX). The letters and
numbers are assigned with sequential order.
The Tax Identity Number (AFM - -
- Tax Registry Number),

12

EUROPE

which is used by citizens and companies for tax pur- As the Personal Identication Number is considered to
poses. It has nine digits, the last one of which is a be unconstitutional, another identication form, the IDcheck digit.
card number is in use.
The Social Security Number (AMKA -
) which is the
work and insurance ID of every employee, pensioner
and dependent member of their family in Greece.
Its rst four digits is the owners date of birth in the
mmyy format.[24]

So an average Hungarian has these identiers: personal

identication number, ID card identication number, social security number (TAJ number), tax identication
number. They may also have passport identication number, driving license number.

4.16 Iceland
The ID card number is not unique and changes if the person gets a new identity card. The tax identity number Main article:
is unique for every citizen and company. Social security Iceland
number is also unique.

4.15 Hungary
In Hungary, there is no national identication number.
The Constitutional Court decided in 1991: A general,
uniform personal identication code which may be used
without restriction (i.e. a personal number) distributed to
every citizen and to every resident of the country based
on an identical principle is unconstitutional.[25]
Although the universal use of national identication number (known as Personal Identication Number) is considered to be unconstitutional, it is still used in many
places. The structure of such number is GYYMMDDXXXC, whereas G is the gender (1-male, 2-female,
other numbers are also possible for citizens born before
1900 or citizens with double citizenship), YYMMDD is
the birth date year, month, day, XXX is the serial number, and C is a checksum digit.
The meanings of the rst number:
male, born between 1900 and 1999
female, born between 1900 and 1999
male, born before 1900 or after 1999
female, born before 1900 or after 1999
Until 1997 also were used the following rst numbers:
5 male, foreign citizen living in Hungary, born between 1900 and 1999
6 female, foreign citizen living in Hungary, born between 1900 and 1999
7 male, foreign citizen living in Hungary, born before 1900 or after 1999
8 female, foreign citizen living in Hungary, born before 1900 or after 1999

National identication numbering in

All Icelanders, as well as foreign citizens residing in

Iceland and corporations and institutions, have a Personal
Identication Number (Icelandic: Kennitala, lit. identication number) identifying them in the National Registry. The number is composed of 10 digits, of which the
rst six are the individuals birth date in the format DDMMYY. The next two digits are chosen at random when the
kennitala is allocated, the 9th digit is a check digit, and the
last digit indicates the century in which the individual was
born (for instance, '9' for the period 19001999, or '0' for
the period 20002099). An example would be 1201743399, the person being born on the twelfth day of January
1974. The Icelandic system is similar to that in other
Scandinavian and European countries, but the use of the
identication number is unusually open and extensive in
Iceland. Businesses and universities use the kennitala as
a customer or student identier, and all banking transactions include it. The National Registry (Icelandic: jskr) oversees the system. A database matching names to
numbers is freely accessible (after login) on all Icelandic
online banking sites. Given this openness, the Kennitala
is never used as an authenticator. It is worth noting that
the completeness of the National Registry eliminates any
need for Iceland to take censuses.

4.17 Ireland
Main article: Personal Public Service Number
In Ireland the Personal Public Service Number (PPS
No) is gaining the characteristics of a national identication number as it is used for a variety of public services
- although it is stated that it is not a national identier
and its use is dened by law.[26] The PPS No. is in the
basic form of 1234567T (PPS Numbers allocated from
1 January 2013 will have the format 1234567TA) and is
unique to every person.
For certain public services the collection or retention of
numbers of the general public is not allowed, thus Garda
Siochna (Irish police) is only given an exemption for its
own employees or other people dened under the Immi-

4.19

Latvia

13

gration Act, 2003 - the latter who are people who are not 4.19 Latvia
European Union nationals. Similarly the Irish Defence
Forces may only collect and retain the number for their In Latvia the Personal Code (Latvian: Personas kods)
consists of 11 digits in form DDMMYY-XNNNC where
own employees.
the rst six digits are persons date of birth, the next one
The PPS Number cannot be used for private or commerstands for a century person was born in (0 for XIX, 1 for
cial transactions. The number is used in the private secXX and 2 for XXI), NNN is birth serial number in that
tor, but is limited to a few procedures that lawfully reday, and C is checksum digit.
quired the production of a number, for transactions with
public services and in this regard the private sector will
be acting as the agent of a public body entitled to col- 4.20 Lithuania
lect and retain the number. Thus, for instance, students
who attend college or university will have their number In Lithuania Personal Code (Lithuanian: Asmens ko(or other personal data) collected at registration - this will das), like in Estonia, consists of 11 digits in the form
then be sent to Department of Social Protection to en- GYYMMDDNNNC, where G is gender and century,
sure that a student is not simultaneously claiming social YYMMDD is the birthday, NNN is birth serial number
welfare. Banks may collect the number for the adminis- in that day, and C is checksum digit.
tration of accounts that give interest or tax reliefs which
the state funds, through the Revenue Commissioners. A The rst number (G) shows both the persons gender, and
bank may not use the number as a customer identication the rst two digits of the birth year - odd for males, even
for females. It is calculated adding 17 to even number
number.
divided by two, or adding one to odd number and dividing
result by two.

4.18 Italy
Main article: Italian scal code card
In Italy, the scal code (Italian: Codice scale) is issued
to Italians at birth. It is in the format SSSNNNYYMDDZZZZX, where: SSS are the rst three consonants in
the family name (the rst vowel and then an X are used if
there are not enough consonants); NNN is the rst name,
of which the rst, third and fourth consonants are used
exceptions are handled as in family names; YY are the
last digits of the birth year; M is the letter for the month
of birthletters are used in alphabetical order, but only
the letters A to E, H, L, M, P, R to T are used (thus, January is A and October is R); DD is the day of the month
of birthin order to dierentiate between genders, 40
is added to the day of birth for women (thus a woman
born on May 3 has ...E43...); ZZZZ is an area code specic to the municipality where the person was born
country-wide codes are used for foreign countries; X is
a parity character as calculated by adding together characters in the even and odd positions, and dividing them
by 26. Numerical values are used for letters in even positions according to their alphabetical order. Characters
in odd positions have dierent values.
A letter is then used which corresponds to the value of
the remainder of the division in the alphabet. An exception algorithm exists in case of perfectly matching codes
for two persons. Issuance of the code is centralized to the
Ministry of Treasure. The scal code uniquely identies
an Italian citizen or permanently resident alien, and is thus
used. However, since it can be calculated from personal
information (whether real, or not), it is not generally regarded as an extremely reserved piece of information, nor
as ocial proof of identity/existence of an individual.

Females: * 2 - 17+2/2=18yy * 4 - 17+4/2=19yy

* 6 - 17+6/2=20yy * 8 - 17+8/2=21yy Males: *
1 - 17+(1+1)/2=18yy * 3 - 17+(3+1)/2=19yy * 5 17+(5+1)/2=20yy * 7 - 17+(7+1)/2=21yy
The checksum is calculated by using this formula (provided here as JavaScript code):
// code[] is zero-based // i.e. code[0] is the rst digit code
= 3840915201"; // rst 10 digits d = 0; e = 0; b = 1; c =
3; for (i = 0; i < 10; i++) { digit = code[i]; d += digit * b;
e += digit * c; b++; if (b == 10) b = 1; c++; if (c == 10)
c = 1; } d = d % 11; e = e % 11; if (d == 10) { if (e ==
10) checksum = 0; else checksum = e; } else { checksum
= d; }

4.21 Macedonia
Main article: Unique Master Citizen Number
Macedonia uses a 13-number identication code Unique
Master Citizen Number (Macedonian: , acronym ).
The Unique Master Citizen Number is composed of 13
digits (DDMMYYYRRSSSC) arranged in six groups:
two digits (DD) for the citizens day of birth, two digits (MM) for the month of birth, last three digits (YYY)
of the year of birth, two digits (RR) as a registry number, three digits (SSS) as a combination of the citizens
sex and ordinal number of birth, and one digit (C) as a
control number.[27]
The two digit registry number depends on the citizens
place of birth. There are nine registry codes that dene
the place of birth: 41 for the municipalities of Bitola,
Demir Hisar and Resen; 42 for the municipalities of

14

Kumanovo, Kratovo and Kriva Palanka; 43 for the municipalities of Ohrid, Struga, Debar and Kievo; 44 for
the municipalities of Prilep, Kruevo and Makedonski
Brod; 45 for the City of Skopje; 46 for the municipalities
of Strumica, Valandovo and Radovi; 47 for the municipalities of Tetovo and Gostivar; 48 for the municipalities
of Veles, Gevegelija, Kavadarci and Negotino; and 49
for the municipalities of tip, Berovo, Vinica, Delevo,
Koani, Probitip and Sveti Nikole.

EUROPE

number to people having a duplicate one. The number does not contain any information about the person
to whom it is assigned i.e. no information such as e.g.
gender or date of birth can be derived from a BSN.

4.25 Norway

There is no legal requirement for Norwegian nationals in

Norway to obtain or carry any identication document or
The combination of the citizens sex and ordinal number
other proof of identity.
of birth is presented as a 3 digit number - from 000 to 499
for the male, and from 500 to 999 for the female citizens. The Norwegian eleven digit Birth Number is assigned at
birth or registration with the National Population Register.
The last digit is a computer generated control digit.
The register is maintained by the Norwegian Tax Oce.
It is composed of the date of birth (DDMMYY), a three
digit individual number, and two check digits. The indi4.22 Moldova
vidual number and the check digits are collectively known
as the Personal Number. The birth number is written on
In the Republic of Moldova, all citizens receive at birth a
identity documents, making it fairly safe to match a bank
Personal Code (IDNP - Numarul de Identicare), which
account or authority document to a person. The reason
is composed of 13 digits. This code is shown on all idenfor calling it Birth Number, it that the tax oces usually
tity documents:
issue it to newborn children.
Internal ID cards
Driving licenses
Passports
as well as all civil status documents: Birth certicates, Marriage certicates, Death certicates etc.

4.23 Montenegro
Main article: Unique Master Citizen Number
Montenegro uses a 13-number identication code Jedinstveni matini broj graana/
(JMBG) - Unique Master Citizen Number.

4.24 Netherlands
Dutch Wikipedia: nl:Burgerservicenummer, nl:
Sofinummer

The rst check digit is calculated through an algorithm involving modulo 11 of weighted sum of the
nine rst digits.
The last check digit is calculated through an
similar algorithm involving the 10 rst digits:
The individual number is selected from a range depending on century of birth: for the years 1854
1899 the range is 500-749, for the years 19001999
the range is 000-499, for the years 20002039 the
range is 500-999.
For the years 19401999, the range 900999 was also used for special purposes, such
as adoptions from abroad and immigrants.
Women are assigned even individual numbers,
men are assigned odd individual numbers.
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. D
comes from the Norwegian name of an authority for
sailors, which previously issued those numbers, usually to sailors on board Norwegian ships. Nowadays
it is also often foreign seasonal workers e.g. in the
tourist industry that get D-numbers.

In the Netherlands, all people receive a Burgerservicenummer (BSN) (Citizens Service Number) when they
are born. It is printed on driving licenses, passports and
international ID cards, under the header Personal Number. Before 2007, the BSN was known as sonummer
(the acronym so stands for so-ciaal (social) -scaal (scal) ). The number is unique. However, initially it was
issued by regionally operating branches of the tax department which where all assigned ranges; in densely popu- 4.26 Poland
lated areas the assigned ranges would overow thus causing duplicate numbers. This mistake was corrected dur- Main article: PESEL
ing the transition from SOFI to BSN by issuing a new

4.31

Slovakia

In Poland, a Powszechny Elektroniczny System

Ewidencji Ludnoci (PESEL) number is mandatory for
all permanent residents of Poland and for temporary residents living in Poland for over 2 months. It has the
form YYMMDDZZZXQ, where YYMMDD is the date
of birth (with century encoded in month eld), ZZZ is the
personal identication number, X denotes sex (even for
females, odd for males) and Q is a parity number.

4.27 Portugal
In Portugal, there is a Fiscal Identication Number
(with the Portuguese acronym NIF). There are four main
identication numbers: Identity Number, Driver License
Number, Fiscal Number and Social Security Number.
All, except the Driver License Number are mandatory.
The cards Identity Card, Fiscal Card, Social Security
Card, Health Card and Voters Card have been merged
into a single Citizens Card or Carto do Cidado.

4.28 Romania
In Romania each citizen has a Personal Numerical Code
(Cod Numeric Personal, CNP), which is created by using the citizens gender and century of birth (1/3/5/7 for
male, 2/4/6/8 for female and 9 for foreign citizen), date
of birth (six digits, YYMMDD), the country zone (two
digits, from 01 to 52, or 99), followed by a serial number
(3 digits), and nally a checksum digit.
The rst digit encodes the gender of person as follows:
The country zone is a code of Romanian county in alphabetical order. For Bucharest the code is 4 followed by the
sector number.

15
Serbia uses a 13-number identication code Unique Master Citizen Number (Serbian:
/Jedinstveni matini broj graana, acronym
JMBG).

4.31 Slovakia
In Slovakia there are two kinds of National identication numbers. The rst one is the Birth Number (Slovak:
Rodn slo (R)), issued at birth by the civic records
authority (Slovak: matrika) and recorded on the birth
certicate. Its format is YYMMDD/XXXX with YYMMDD being the date of birth and XXXX being a semiunique identier. For females, the month of the date of
birth is advanced by 50. Full identication number in the
form YYMMDDXXXX must be divisible by 11. Since
this system does not provide a truly unique identier (the
numbers are repeated every century) and contains what
might be considered private information, it may be updated in the future.
The second system is the Citizens Identication Card
Number (Slovak: slo obianskeho preukazu (OP))
which is in the form AA XXXXXX (A-alphabetic, Xnumeric) and is used on ID cards. Identication Cards
are issued by the state authority (police) for every citizen who reaches 15 years of age. In contrast to the Birth
Number, this identier can change over the citizens lifetime if a new ID card is issued, for reasons such as expiration, loss or change of residence. The ID number is
used, among other things, for voter registration (because
of the domicile record verication provided by the ID). A
similar system, with both types of identication numbers,
is used in the Czech Republic.

To calculate the checksum digit, every digit from CNP

is multiplied with the corresponding digit in number 4.32 Slovenia
279146358279; the sum of all these multiplications is
then divided by 11. If the remainder is 10 then the check- Main article: Unique Master Citizen Number
sum digit is 1, otherwise its the remainder itself.
Example ======= Control = 279146358279 CNP = Slovenia uses a 13-number identication code Enotna
1800101221144 ^ checksum digit = 4 Checksum value matina tevilka obana (EMO) - Unique Master Cit= 1 * 2 + 8 * 7 + 0 * 9 + 0 * 1 + 1 * 4 + 0 * 6 + 1 * 3 + 2 izen Number.
* 5 + 2 * 8 + 1 * 2 + 1 * 7 + 4 * 9 = 136 Checksum digit It is composed of 13 digits as follows DDM= 136 mod 11 = 4. Valid CNP (the last digit is indeed 4). MYYYRRSSSX.
DD - day of birth>
MM - month of birth
4.29 San Marino
YYY - year of birth, last three digits
In San Marino there exists the Codice ISS (Istituto Si- RR - a constant value 50
curezza Sociale), which is composed of 5 digits. It is This is a remnant of Yugoslavia, a registry number that
given to all San Marino citizens and permanent residents. marked the birth zone:
- 00-09 foreigners
- 10-19 Bosnia and Herzegovina
- 20-29 Montenegro
4.30 Serbia
- 30-39 Croatia (33 - Zagreb)
Main article: Unique Master Citizen Number
- 40-49 Macedonia
- 50-59 Slovenia (only 50 is used)

16
- 60-69 (not in use)
- 70-79 Serbia (71 - Beograd)
- 80-89 Province of Vojvodina (80 Novi Sad)
- 90-99 Province of Kosovo
SSS - serial number or combination of sex and serial
numbers for persons born on the same day (000-499 for
men and 500-999 for women)
X - checksum of rst 12

4.33 Spain
In Spain, all Spanish citizens over 14 years old are issued
with a National Identity Document (Spanish: Documento
Nacional de Identidad (DNI)), with a unique number,
in the format 00000000-A (where 0 is a digit and A is
a checksum letter). Since 2010, foreign nationals are no
longer issued with identity cards, although they are assigned a number in the format X-0000000-A (again, 0 is
a digit, A is a checksum letter, and X is a letter, generally
X but lately also Y), called an NIE Number (Nmero
de Identicacin de Extranjeros, Foreigners Identity
Number). The numbers are used as identication for almost all purposes. This is required for all transactions
related with tax authority.

EUROPE

The AAA digits encode the family name.

The BB digits are equal to the last two digits of the
year of birth.
The CCC digits encode the birth day as a trimester
number (1-4) followed by the number of the day in
the trimester. An oset of 400 is added for female
persons (e.g. 101 is January 1 for men and 501 is
January 1 for women).
The DDD digits are used to be an origin code depending which country the person came from and
or if this person was a Swiss citizen through birth or
naturalisation.
As of 2008, an anonymous thirteen-digit number is being issued to all Swiss residents. It is of the form
756.XXXX.XXXX.XY, where 756 is the ISO 3166-1
code for Switzerland, XXXX.XXXX.X is a random number and Y is an EAN-13 check digit.[28]

4.36 Turkey

During the application for a national ID card, every

Foreign nationals are required to use their passports to- Turkish citizen is assigned a unique personal identigether with the document containing their NIE number
cation number called Turkish Identication Number
(Turkish:
Trkiye Cumhuriyeti Kimlik Numaras or
abbreviated as T.C. Kimlik No.), an 11-digit number with
4.34 Sweden
two trailing check digits. This assignment is organized
through the MERNIS (abbreviation for English: CenMain article: Personal identity number (Sweden)
tral Personal Registration Administration System) project
that started on 28 October 2000. The national ID card is
In Sweden a Personal Identity Number (Swedish: person- compulsory for every citizen and is issued at birth. Parnummer) is used in dealings with public agencies, from ents need to register to the authorities with the childs
health care to the tax authorities. It is also used as a cus- birth certicate.
tomer number in banks and insurance companies. It is The identication number is used by public institutions
written on all approved identity documents, making the in their certicates and documents like identity card,
risk of mixing up people low. The number uses ten dig- passport, international family book, driving license, form
its, YYMMDD-NNGC. The rst six give the birth date and manifesto they issue to citizens. It is used by services
in YYMMDD format. Digits seven to nine (NNG) are such as taxation, security, voting, education, social secuused to make the number unique, where digit nine (G) is rity, health care, military recruitment, and banking.[29]
odd for men and even for women. The seventh and eighth
digit (for numbers issued before 1990) identify the county
of birth or foreign born people. Privacy related criticism 4.37 Ukraine
caused this system to be abandoned for new numbers.
Individual Identication Number is a 10 digit number issued by the tax administration. The rst 5 digits represent
4.35 Switzerland
birthday as the number of days since 01/01/1900. The
last digit is a check digit. The algorithm is not publicly
Since the introduction of a national pension scheme in revealed. Similar numbers are issued to residents and
1948, most persons resident in Switzerland are allocated foreigners. A person can opt out of receiving an India Social Security Number (AHV-Nr. [de] / No AVS vidual Identication Number based on religious or other
[fr]), which is also used for other governmental purposes. beliefs, however it is associated with minor tax disadvanThe eleven-digit format in use since 1968 is of the form tages. The Individual Identication Numbers are issued
AAA.BB.CCC.DDD and encodes information about the according to a Law of Ukraine 320/94-BP passed on Dename, birthdate and sex of its holder:
cember 22, 1994.

5.2

New Zealand

17

4.38 United Kingdom

proposal for an Access Card to health and welfare benets was abandoned in 2007 due to privacy concerns reMain article: National Insurance number
lating to identity theft and disclosure of information. The
Medicare and tax le number identiers are protected by
[31][32]
There is no legal requirement in UK to obtain or carry strict privacy laws.
any identication document or other proof of identity.
A National Insurance number, generally called an NI 5.2 New Zealand
Number (NINO), is used to administer state benets, but
has not gained the ubiquity of its US equivalent, and is See also: NHI Number
not considered proof of identity. The number is stylised
as LL NN NN NN L, for example AA 01 23 44 B.
In New Zealand, an Inland Revenue Department
Each baby born in the England and Wales is issued a (IRD) number is issued by the IRD to every taxpayer
National Health Service number, taking the form NNN- (a natural or juristic person), and is needed with dealings
NNN-NNNN, for example 122-762-9255 (the last num- with the IRD. It must be given to any employer or bank
ber being a check digit, not correct in the example [30] ). responsible for charging withholding tax, and to apply for
They were formerly of the style LLLNNL NNN, for or use a student loan. Drivers licences carry a unique
example KWB91M 342, which continued patterns used number, often recorded when providing them as identiin World War II identity cards. However, since National cation.
Health Numbers often change when moving to a dierent
part of the country and having to change General Prac- The social security and student support services of the
titioners, the ratio is more often more (one person:many Ministry of Social Development (Work and Income, and
numbers) than (one person:one number). The National StudyLink) issue a Work and Income client number,
Programme for Information Technology (NPfIT) has also assigned at the occurrence of a persons rst contact with
either service. A general letter of enquiry about a service
shown that one person can have many numbers.
appears to be sucient for one to be logged and may be
Babies born in Scotland are issued a CHI (Commu- assigned without the letter writers knowledge.
nity Health Index) number, taking the form DDMMYYNNNN, with the DDMMYY representing their date of A National Health Index (NHI) number is assigned to
birth and a four digit unique number thereafter (e.g. all newborn New Zealanders at birth, and those who use
someone born on 1 January 2010, would have the num- a health and disability support service that do not already
ber 010110-NNNN, with the four digit number allo- have one.
cated upon entering newborn details on to the local health The small population means a name and date of birth can
boards patient administration system). The third N is usually uniquely identify someone, though identity theft is
even for females and odd for males.
easily possible when two people share a name and birthdate.

Oceania
6 See also

5.1

Australia

As in the UK, there is no legal requirement to obtain or

carry any identication document or other proof of identity. In Australia there is no universal identifying number
for individuals. The closest to universal at present are:
Medicare card number, for health services, although
they may change regularly
Tax le number (TFN), for tax matters, including
tax matters relating to non-citizens
State Drivers License, for general matters, although
if people have no drivers license they can supply a
Passport or other identity card information
The Australia Card proposal would have created a universal number for Australian citizens and permanent residents. That proposal was abandoned in 1987. A 2005

International identiers (for companies)

Business Identier Code (BIC/ISO 9362, a normalized code for trade, especially popular in banking
area as the international Bank code - also known as
Bank Identier Code, Bank International Code and
SWIFT code), ...

7 References
[1] http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/iw8ben.pdf
[2] http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-Taxpayers/
U.S.-Taxpayer-Identification-Number-Requirement
[3] SML-FX.COM. SAIDValidator.
2011.

Retrieved 28 July

18

EXTERNAL LINKS

[4] Independent Newspapers Online (2009-03-07). Durban

man tells of identity number woes - South Africa | IOL
News. IOL.co.za. Retrieved 2012-07-13.

[29] MERNS Projesi hayata geiyor/ Nfus kaytlar bilgisayarlara tanyor. Dnya Gazetesi (in Turkish). 2000-1024. Retrieved 2009-11-14.

[5]

[30]

[6] Department of Home Aairs: Strategic Plan 200811

and Transformation Programme | Parliamentary Monitoring Group | Parliament of South Africa monitored.
Pmg.org.za. 2008-06-04. Retrieved 2012-07-13.

[31] Privacy and security. Medicare Australia. 2011-11-23.

Retrieved 2012-07-13.
[32] Tax File Numbers. Privacy.gov.au. 2010-11-01. Retrieved 2012-07-13.

[7] inss.gov.br. inss.gov.br. Retrieved 2012-07-14.

[8] Social Insurance Number Usage. OnPayroll.ca. 26 August 2011.
[9] David T.S. Fraser (1 September 2003). New rules for
using social insurance numbers (PDF). McInnes Cooper
law rm.
[10] Kouri, Jim (March 9, 2005). Social Security Cards: De
Facto National Identication. American Chronicle.
[11]
[12] Compute Taiwan citizen and resident identication number checksums. Jidanni.org. Retrieved 2014-03-09.
[13]
[14] Decision number 827 for way of coding and structure
of citizens identity numbers. Qpz.gov.al. 11 December
2003.
[15]
[16] Fehler 404. Buergerkarte.at. Retrieved 2013-10-27.
[17]
[18] OIB - Croatia. Oib.hr. Retrieved 2012-07-13.
[19] 66 7.6.2002 Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Zakona
o matinom broju. Narodne-novine.nn.hr. Retrieved
2014-03-09.
[20]
[21] CPRs udvikling gennem mere end 40 ar (PDF). Datamuseum.dk. Retrieved 2014-03-08.
[22] Personal identity code - Population Register Centre.
Vrk.. 1952-10-13. Retrieved 2014-03-09.
[23] Verdict of the Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht), December 15., 1983, BVerfGE 65, 1.
[24] AMKA - What is the AMKA?". Amka.gr. Retrieved
2012-07-13.
[25] Stream: Blog. Privacy International. Retrieved 201207-13.
[26] Ireland: Department of Social Protection, PPS Number
Legislation. Welfare.ie. 25 July 2011.
[27] YKA 3 (PDF). Mvr.gov.mk. Retrieved 2014-03-08.
[28] Einfhrung der neuen AHV-Nummer (in German).
Federal Oce of Social Security. Retrieved 2008-12-07.

RealVirtual.ro - free online Romanian national identication number ( Personal Numeric Code, Cod
Numeric Personal - CNP)

8 External links
Guide to South African ID no. validation

19

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

9.1

Text

National identication number Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National%20identification%20number?oldid=659053766 Contributors: Palnatoke, Arpingstone, CesarB, Rahul~enwiki, Ahkitj, Frin, Andres, Dwo, Przepla, Gutza, WhisperToMe, Darkcore, Dale Arnett, Henrygb, Guy Peters, DavidCary, Ich, Tsca, Everyking, Alensha, Mboverload, Djegan, Gazibara, Eddpayne, Gschizas, Neutrality,
Thorsten1, Klemen Kocjancic, Picapica, Thorwald, Dreamatalana, Juokelis~enwiki, Sladen, Cnyborg, Kooo, WegianWarrior, Spinal83,
Swid, Syp, Mairi, CeeGee, Jpallan, Giraedata, Irrawaddy, La goutte de pluie, Lailoken, Caeruleancentaur, Espoo, Musiphil, Eleland, Ctande, Burwellian, ProhibitOnions, RainbowOfLight, Vuo, Alai, Instantnood, Kirev, Blaxthos, Belirac, Dtobias, Novacatz, Sterio, AirBa~enwiki, Alanmak, Tabletop, Tapir2001, Jonasludvigsson, GregorB, Wayward, Wiki-vr, Havarhen, Graham87, BD2412, Sj,
Rjwilmsi, Gurch, RobyWayne, Valentinian, Benlisquare, Bgwhite, Rogertudor, Roygbiv666, Wavelength, Dnik, Snappy, StuOfInterest,
RussBot, IByte, Lord Voldemort, Gaius Cornelius, Rsrikanth05, Joel7687, Thiseye, Adamrush, Nlu, Sandstein, Deville, Petri Krohn, Yaco,
Sardanaphalus, SmackBot, TestPilot, Nil Einne, Grawity, Hmains, Jacksonyguo, Chris the speller, Master of Puppets, Jstplace, Kevin Ryde,
Nbarth, Mike hayes, Famspear, Vasilken, Beradrian, Muzi, BIL, Arun Philip, Derek R Bullamore, Sokolesq, Qasinka, Paul 012, Khazar,
Jidanni, JethroElfman, Lapaz, 16@r, Catalinux~enwiki, Andhanq, Keycard, Joseph Solis in Australia, Plutix, Galadrien, Goran.S2, KimChee, ChrisCork, ShakespeareFan00, H0sting, CRGreathouse, CmdrObot, Except, Ofurrobbi, Raz1el, NTsilakis, Javiskefka, CoolCityCat,
Ketorin, Alexandru.deva, Terbayang, Jaydenm, Rieman 82, Starwarp2k2, Richardguk, Hebrides, Vladimirko, Nikopoley, IvanStepaniuk,
JustAGal, Jirka6, JAnDbot, Clahabremen, PhilKnight, Joshua, 1g, Salinix, BuzzDog, Appraiser, Dima1, Tonyfaull, AlephGamma, EagleFan, Bernardlinde, Bibliophylax, Redleader, Budgee, Veritasliberabitnos~enwiki, Erpbridge, Van100j, Jargon777, J.delanoy, Sinissa,
Tikiwont, Eliz81, Sincklation, Jerry, May0104, Lee Choquette, KylieTastic, Escla, Funandtrvl, Rhoerbe, Hgonzale, Dave Andrew, The
Wild Falcon, Webkami, GroveGuy, Qxz, GeneralBelly, Majalinno, The dog2, !dea4u, S.rvarr.S, Servant Saber~enwiki, Heb, Rave92,
M. Lasse Cullen, Mwaisberg, Digwuren, Quest for Truth, Maxval, Correogsk, Isarmien~enwiki, Sphilbrick, Angelo De La Paz, ClueBot,
EoGuy, Mild Bill Hiccup, GoEThe, Rprpr, Ericmars, Excirial, Mfa fariz, , Tortureduck, Mhockey, DumZiBoT, Stickee, NellieBly,
Inkeri9, Piasoft, Addbot, Basilicofresco, Flyvholmoo, AndrewHZ, Auridia, SpellingBot, NjardarBot, Tide rolls, Lightbot, Totorotroll,
Andublin, ZioNicco, Yobot, Xeex, AnomieBOT, Ciphers, Fatih36, Cossde, Kuwaity26, Identnmb, LilHelpa, Tom.magnussen, Obersachsebot, Nadhthota, Eboireau, Eugene-elgato, FrescoBot, George6996,
, Idyllic press, CayenneGaramonde, Nemsis85, Sandcat01,
Kiefer.Wolfowitz, Full-date unlinking bot, Barras, Gokulnath b2002, Mjs1991, HelenOnline, Lotje, Sussexonian, Trickytext, Malyadik,
Humal, RjwilmsiBot, Artu165, John of Reading, WikitanvirBot, Dewritech, GoingBatty, Botoxaki, Thecheesykid, Alpha Quadrant (alt),
Anantmittal2, Pernalin, Chilukar, Bundawda, Helpsome, ClueBot NG, Gareth Grith-Jones, Chrisminter, Feedintm, Widr, MerlIwBot,
Jamie Tubers, Alorayed, 2001:db8, BG19bot, Murry1975, Dejan.Vesic, Adriaan Joubert, Mark Arsten, Iulian.butunoi, AStyle, Fylbecatulous, Pai Walisongo, Elias.alabri, Chriscollingwood613, Mogism, Delljvc, Benjaminarodriguezr, Wiki-Torf, Jamesmcmahon0, Tentinator,
Didinutza, LT910001, Jongotlin, Mvhaha, GJDV, Jianhui67, Rekowo, Ravishyam Bangalore, OccultZone, Androoox, FriendlyCaribou,
Krishtoer, Gjthteh, Editsforpeace, Banks26, Kbleader, Rajiva singh and Anonymous: 381

9.2

Images

File:Ambox_important.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Ambox_important.svg License: Public domain Contributors: Own work, based o of Image:Ambox scales.svg Original artist: Dsmurat (talk contribs)
File:ApartheidPopulationGroups.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/ApartheidPopulationGroups.jpg
License: Public domain Contributors: Own work, photo of personal identity document of HelenOnline Original artist: HelenOnline, Government of South Africa
File:ID_Document.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2a/ID_Document.jpg License: PD Contributors: ? Original
artist: ?
File:Question_book-new.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/99/Question_book-new.svg License: Cc-by-sa-3.0
Contributors:
Created from scratch in Adobe Illustrator. Based on Image:Question book.png created by User:Equazcion Original artist:
Tkgd2007

9.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0