# Social Security Numbers

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/social-security-numbers/10054>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 10, 2000, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/social-security-numbers/10054 "2000-04-10T18:10:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Oblong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c0e974/32.png) [@Oblong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oblong)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2000, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/social-security-numbers/10054/1 "2000-04-10T18:10:00Z")

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What is the scheme of assigning Social Security Number? I think the population of the US is around 275,000,000 so we’ve got abuot 725,000,000 people to go before we run out of numbers. How soon after a person dies do they assign the number again? Does anybody have a number that starts with zero? What about numbers easily guessed like 123-456-789 or 333-33-3333? Do Immigrants’ numbers start with a special number? What if we run out?

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**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2000, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/social-security-numbers/10054/2 "2000-04-10T18:36:00Z")

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They aren’t reassigned. Yes, we’ll run out eventually.

No, they can’t begin with 000. Or have any all zero field in them.

Yes, you can tell something about where and when the number was issued. Where (state) is directly coded, when has to be related to an ascending sequence within the number.

See link:  
[http://www.cpsr.org/cpsr/privacy/ssn/ssn.structure.html](http://www.cpsr.org/cpsr/privacy/ssn/ssn.structure.html)

The world will run out of IP addresses before the US runs out of SSN’s. THAT will be fun …

And we’ll have to do SOMETHING about the US phone numbers before then, too. Phone numbering schemes in many developed countries are feeling the strain of cell phones, fax’s and modems, actually.

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**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2000, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/social-security-numbers/10054/3 "2000-04-10T18:39:00Z")

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This site has the answers to some of your questions.

[Consumer Information Center: Your Social Security Number](http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/cic_text/fed_prog/ssnumber/ssnumber.htm)

> [@](#):
>
> WHAT THE NUMBERS MEAN  
> The nine-digit Social Security number is divided into three parts. The first three numbers generally indicate the state of residence at the time a person applies for his or her first card. Originally, the lowest numbers were assigned to the New England states, and the numbers grew progressively higher in the South and West. However, in recent years, this geographical relationship has been disrupted somewhat by the need to allocate numbers out of sequence as state populations change.
> 
> The middle two digits of a Social Security number have no special significance, but merely serve to break the numbers into blocks of convenient size. The last four characters represent a straight numerical progression of assigned numbers.
> 
> SSA has issued more than 383 million Social Security numbers, and about 6 million new numbers are assigned each year. But even at this rate, there will be no need to reissue the same numbers, revise the present system, or devise a new numbering system for several generations. For this reason, SSA plans to continue using the nine-digit number.