Personal identification number (Denmark)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Danish Personal Identification number (Danish: CPR-nummer or personnummer) is a national identification number, which is part of the personal information stored in the Civil Registration System (Danish: Det Centrale Personregister).

The register was established in 1968 by combining information from all municipal civil registers of Denmark into one.

It is a ten-digit number with the format DDMMYY-SSSC, where DDMMYY is the date of birth, SSS is a sequence number and C is a modulo-11 check digit. The first digit of the sequence number encodes the century of birth (so that centennarians are distinguished from infants), and the entire sequence number is chosen such that the check digit comes out odd for males and even for females. As the population of Denmark grows, the reserve of unused sequence numbers is approaching zero for some dates of birth, and the civil registration office expects to have to start issuing identification numbers that fail the modulo-11 check in 2006 or 2007 [1].

Contents

[edit] How to get a Personal ID Number

Any person registered as of April 2, 1968 (May 1, 1972, in Greenland) or later in a Danish civil register, receives a personal identification number. Any person who is a member of ATP or is required to pay tax in Denmark according to the Tax-control Law of Denmark, but is not registered in a civil register, also receives a personal identification number.

The civil register list only persons who:

  • Are born in Denmark of a mother already registered in the civil register, or
  • Have their birth or baptism registered in a ’Dansk Elektronisk Kirkebog (DNK)’ (Danish electronic church-book), or
  • Reside legally in Denmark for 3 months or more (non-Nordic citizens must also have a residence permit)

Danish citizens, including newborn babies, who are entitled to Danish citizenship, but are living abroad, do not receive a personal ID number, unless they move to Denmark.

[edit] Personal ID Number Certificate

Personnummerbevis. Today this certificate is of little use in Danish society, as it has been largely replaced by the much more versatile Sygesikringsbevis, which contains the same information and more. Both certificates retrieve their information from the Civil Registration System. However, personnummerbevis is still issued today and has been since September 1968.

It is received upon registration with the Civil Registration System, either by birth or by moving to the country. It may only be issued once and change of address does not entail issuing a new one. One can however request a new one from Indenrigs- og Sundhedsministeriet or in some cases the municipality one lives in.

[edit] Person ID Number in Danish Society

The number is an integral part of Danish society, and it is virtually impossible to receive any form of government service without one. Even in the private sector you would be hard pressed to receive services without such a number, unless it is minor daily business.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

In other languages