Ask Mike: How are Social Security Numbers Assigned?
Hey Guys,
Social Security is always in the news for one reason or another. But there’s one question about the government program that I’ve never heard answered: How are Social Security numbers assigned? Is it random? Are they recycled when people die? I went to the official site for the Social Security and found a few answers.
Here’s how it breaks down. A Social Security number is divided into three parts. The first 3-digit section is called an “area number” and it isn’t random. If your number was assigned to you before 1972, then “the area number reflects the state where you applied for your number.” However, if you applied for your number after 1972, the numbers were generated differently, using ZIP codes. The number likely has some relation to the ZIP code in your mailing address.
Moving on to the middle two digits. These suckers, known as the “group number,” are apparently random. “It has no special geographic significance but merely serve to break the number into conveniently sized blocks for orderly issuance.” The last four digits are called the serial number. It’s just a “straight numerical sequence of digits from 0001-9999 within the group.”
So, that explains the how numbers are assigned, but what happens to numbers when people die? Do they get recycled? Surprisingly, they are not. The Social Security Agency does not re-assign numbers after a person passes away. The official site reports, “the current numbering system will provide us with enough new numbers for several generations into the future with no changes in the numbering system.”
And, make no mistake, Social Security has been around a while. The first numbers were issued back in November of 1936, and since then, “about 442 million Social Security numbers have been assigned.” Contrary to popular belief, the first number assigned wasn’t the lowest number. It was 055-09-0001, and it was assigned to John D. Sweeney, Jr., of New Rochelle, New York. As for the lowest number, 001-01-0001, it was given to Ms. Grace D. Owen of Concord, New Hampshire. You can read more about Mr. Sweeney and Ms. Owen here.
I didn’t get my Social Security number until I was in elementary school. These days, it’s recommended that mom and dad get their kids a number as soon as they sign the birth certificate. Just one more thing for new parents to remember…
Thanks for reading,
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
- Rating:
(35 votes, average: 4.06) - Permalink
- Comments (44)
Loading ...
(average 4.64)
Subscribe
Socialsecurity may be important but no one cares
it’s actually interesting…i thought it was random.
There was a report in the last couple years that hackers had figured out how to reverse-engineer someone’s SSN based on their date and place of birth. Glad I got mine some time between birth and my first job.
Your blog, as always, is full of facts I never realized I was interested in and am happy to discover. I love your blog; it’s always fun and informative. You’re a true fact detective.
just wanted to say…i’ve gotten mine the day i was born…..12-28-1949 what a day….three days after Christmas…and four days before the new year….so you get nothing for nothing
That makes sense because my family has like the same number due to being born in Illinois.
Mike,
You stated that the lowest social security number is 001-01-0001.
That is incorrect. The lowest social security number is “1″ issued to President Franklin Deleno Roosevelt.
Correction:
Should be Franklin Delano Roosevelt in my previous comment.
The first three digits in my daughter’s ssn is 768 and our zip is 34232. I fail to see any relation. Interesting though!
All of Wyoming uses the prefix 520. We can tell who are Wyoming natives or came here young by their social security number. Very handy. Now I know what the middle number and the third set of numbers is. Thanks for the info.
THEPEOPLE AT SS GAVE ME MY #IN TEXAS.IAM PROUD.THANK yOU FOR THE INFO.
The first three numbers represent the state you were born in…
Every state has a grouping of numbers assigned by social security. What state you were born can be identified by the first three numbers of your social.
thanks this is a very informative article
actually the two middle numbers have been reported to be linked to ethnicity. In the 50′s and 60′s at least odd numbers were given to minorities. I think it has changed since my # is even and all of my white friends #’s are odd.
My 3 kids have the same first 3 digits and one was born in France, the other 2 were born in Las Vegas, Nevada… 680 first 3 digits… zip code is 89102 so I don’t see any relation either! The one born in France got her SSN while in Paris, so how come has also 680? It is because I provided Las Vegas, NV address for SSN to arrive! (relative’s address) while I was living in Paris.
I still don’t get what the middle two numbers are suppose to represent. That was some interesting info though thanks.
SS numbers also tell your race as well and where you live you forgot that one. I learn this from doing research on SS numbers. It is interesting how they broke down people by numbers.
Any truth to SS assigning a particular number in the nine digits as odd or even to determine race?
I have done some research on this myself, the middle two numbers are NOT random! They are a CODE, they represent the approximate year you were born.
They will not be the exact year you were born, however, on paper in the soc sec office, they will represent the approx year you were born.
interesting,I always thought about that and as for the first one I always assumed that it was 001-01-0001!!!
If I could star this answer I would.
Really thats so intertresting that you wrote about that u know
I also hear that the middle digits of white people ss numbers are even and blacks are odd.
I got mine when I was about 1989, in Arizona, although I was born in Boston. The 1st three seem to match for people born here, etc. So I’m convinced it’s the state you get it in, not the one you were born in.
I’ve read that for security reasons they would never reveal what the 2 middle ones represent, This is a really cool thing to know.
Whioa – that 3rd comment was a little scary – what is reverse-engineering someone’s SSN? Why would the time frame that you get your SSN protect you? Worrisom, but very curious!
Tell Amy to look again. Each of the first three numbers is the remainder from the first three of her zip code, if deducted from ten. It was there all along.
ellspops
how the bi tie factors depend on interact with other bio tie and abiotie factors with you ecosystem
“the first number assigned wasn’t the lowest number. It was 055-09-0001″
If what you said above was correct, then yes it was the lowest number because the first three are not a number, but a geographic representation, and the other two are an assigning group, which also is not the number, but the group you fall under. I.e. the guy was given the geographic location associated to 055, and the group “09,” meaning the last four, being 0001, is the starting point and lowest number in that group for that geographic location.
And since, on top of being the first of the “09″ group, he was the very first, then he does in fact have the lowest Social Security number. And there is nothing lower than 0001 except 0000, which apparently no one has ever been assigned.
As for the woman who had 001-01-0001, that only means she was the first of the geographic location of “001″ assigned to the group of “01.”
My point? Is the fact that the first 5 digits, while they are part of the number system we use, are not part of the counting part of the system and therefore cannot be considered when determining who has the lowest SS#. To spell it out, the first 5 digits are not the part that actually numbers the people. They are only the part that assigns them to a number-named location and group.
Interesting info though, thanks
It would have been a great help if the title had read “How are Social Security Numbers Assigned in the USA?” Note the last 3 words, “in the USA”, which I have added.
Yahoo Answers – and the Internet – does actually extend outside of the United States of America, you know!
Julie posted correctly it depends on where your father was born. I was born in Texas as both my children, yet my 2nd child’s father from Up north. his ss first 3 digits are diff. from his sisters’ first 3 digits.
Someone should tell phone company.
If there are a sufficient amount of numbers for the government, the telephone companies wouldn’t have to overlay more area codes.
I like all your answers to all the question.You give very good and interesting information.Thanks very much i really like to read all your coments.
Does the Canadian SIN work the same way?
You refer to before 1972 n’ after 1972; what about 1972 itself? I read that the low digits refer to the east coast and the numbers get higher as you go west. This works for my research because I was born in VA, as were my older relatives, and our s.s. begin with 1 and 2′s. Now I live in midwest, and my daughter and various friends born in the tri-state area have s.s starting with 3 or 4. The same book stated that there were VERY few 0′s ever issued.
Can you give your number back and be numberless? It sort of feels a but like the mark of the beast, doesn’t it?
I once met two guys while standing in line during one of the many times in the Army I stood in line for something. I remember they noticed they had the same “last 4″ which we pretty much use for everything and one of them says “What are the odds of that?” to which I say “About one in ten-thousand.” Then they look at me like I’m an a-hole and say, “yeah, guess you’re right”. Good Times those were.
[This works for my research because I was born in VA, as were my older relatives, and our s.s. begin with 1 and 2’s.]
I don’t know about your research, but I’d hypothesize that more numbers starting with 1s, 2s, and 9s, have been issued that all 7 other numbers combined. Also 0 would correspond with Maine, NH, VT, and parts of upstate NY, so it’s understandable that there’d be comparatively few, though surely 0 comprises a lot of individuals.
me and my brothers all have the same first 5 #,but no one else where we were born including kids born 1yr before and several after us ,born in the same place have the same as us.Why do u think that is?
PS
It is said if your File # begins with a 2 or 7…they are the only file numbers issued “out of sequence” because the digits were biometricly manipulated and tailored to the “INDIVIDUALs” info for inclussion in the specific government study…
Either the SSA messed up, the states shared some numbers, or there is something my parents aren’t telling me. I was born in Michigan on 12/19/72 but my SSN beginning with 403 says it came from Kentucky. Any ideas?
Also, the group numbers (middle digits) are assigned at different rates during the same time intervals. For example, In 1989, a person applying for a number in Ohio would have a high even group number (around “90″). In Georgia, a person applying for a number at the same time would have a high odd number (around “69″). In Texas, a person applying for a number in 1989 would likely have a low odd middle two (around “07″), or a high even (around “10″ or “12″). In Kansas, a low even is likely in 1989 (around “02″). However, young children born around the same time, in the same state would have similar, if not identical group numbers (middle digits).
Hi, I was born in 1971 and in the state of Georgia and my ssn begins with a number for Iowa?? What could the reason be. My mother applied for mine in Ga as well. Anyone know????