Social Security Numbers about to run out.
 

The lotto thread got me thinking.. are social security numbers about to run out... ??

well being that there are..


1,000,000,000

possible SS#'s, I'm guessing no... not any time soon.

who got 000000001?

Mines one of the first ones, it starts with a 031. :glugglug

Think of the population, then think of the # that have died and been born and died in that time since they have been given out. Are they going to start re-issuing used ones?

idiot

I hope you're joking.

Social Security numbers aren't assigned chronologically, the firts three numbers is like the state or region of the country you were born in, the second two are something else, and so on. Each group of numbers means something different.

I'm sure we've already spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars just to "study" the issue, so let's hope the powers that be have a contingency plan.

Of course it would be funny if the plan to fix social security is to run out of numbers so we don't have to pay out benefits anymore.....LOL

" Any number beginning with 000 will NEVER be a valid SSN. "

http://www.ssa.gov/foia/stateweb.html


and the rest of the info I found on ss structure

http://www.cpsr.org/cpsr/privacy/ssn/ssn.structure.html

If they ever run out of numbers all they have to do is add another number or add a letter...

then they'll have enough for another 80 years.

and re-make all government software ?? yes eventually they will, but that will require alot of tooling..

I suspect they are remaking them.

I have read the above ss # assign chart before and almost half of the numbers arent used * or assigned for military etc etc so that only leaves 500 million dead and alive people. Thats not very many..

I would think it would be very soon

only 325 million americans max right now

add that too every dead american.. Then subtract the military assigned numbers, then subtract any fields with all 0's etc etc. Its pretty close. under a 100 million says my buddy i say 30-50 million

i sale short social security numbers...

I came to 73.4 million. that leaves another 7 years before things get shaky. by then there will be no records, except your DNA

i dont think i ever found a good answer for this ?? many forms only have the option of using 9 numbers.

Is there something im missing ?

Nope. It's some complex system, by the time we get near the end the people to have originally had them will be long gone and they can reuse the numbers. Plus we'll prolly have chips implanted in us by then anyway.

SSN numbers used by the IRS are similar to business EIN (both 9 digits). But I expect when that time comes years down the road we will probably see the use of letters... 47A-13-483B or something...

I always mees with my pop when a bank or someone asks for his SSN, I joke...

000-00-0003

Makes him feel pretty damn old. :) He's a good sport.

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 to certain growing and populous states. 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 about 365 million Social Security numbers, and about 10
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.

I agree that by then we'll have implemented newer (and hopefully more accurate) systems for tracking people in this country.

the numbers are reissued after someone has been dead for a certain number of years.

i know`what the numbers mean , but theres less than what they make it seem

theres none that start with 0 so thats 100 million right theres

lots of blocks assigned to military ??

Plus add all the mexicans and i bet theres only a few hundred million left , at 10 million a year we run out in 20 years

Ok, Im tired....so thus...stupid.....do this help?

Since 1973, social security numbers have been issued by our central office. The first three (3) digits of a person's social security number are determined by the ZIP Code of the mailing address shown on the application for a social security number. Prior to 1973, social security numbers were assigned by our field offices. The number merely established that his/her card was issued by one of our offices in that State. See also High Group List of SSN's.

THIS DATA IS STRICTLY FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The chart below shows the first 3 digits of the social security numbers assigned throughout the United States and its possessions. See "Note" at bottom of page.

001-003
New Hampshire

004-007
Maine

008-009
Vermont

010-034
Massachusetts

035-039
Rhode Island

040-049
Connecticut

050-134
New York

135-158
New Jersey

159-211
Pennsylvania

212-220
Maryland

221-222
Delaware

223-231
Virginia

691-699*

232-236
West Virginia

232
North Carolina

237-246

681-690

247-251
South Carolina

654-658

252-260
Georgia

667-675

261-267
Florida

589-595

766-772

268-302
Ohio

303-317
Indiana

318-361
Illinois

362-386
Michigan

387-399
Wisconsin

400-407
Kentucky

408-415
Tennessee

756-763*

416-424
Alabama

425-428
Mississippi

587-588

752-755*

429-432
Arkansas

676-679

433-439
Louisiana

659-665

440-448
Oklahoma

449-467
Texas

627-645

468-477
Minnesota

478-485
Iowa

486-500
Missouri

501-502
North Dakota

503-504
South Dakota

505-508
Nebraska

509-515
Kansas

516-517
Montana

518-519
Idaho

520
Wyoming

521-524
Colorado

650-653

525,585
New Mexico

648-649

526-527
Arizona

600-601

764-765

528-529
Utah

646-647

530
Nevada

680

531-539
Washington

540-544
Oregon

545-573
California

602-626

574
Alaska

575-576
Hawaii

750-751*

577-579
District of Columbia

580
Virgin Islands

580-584
Puerto Rico

596-599

586
Guam

586
American Samoa

586
Philippine Islands

700-728
Railroad Board**

729-733 Enumeration at Entry

NOTE: The same area, when shown more than once, means that certain numbers have been transferred from one State to another, or that an area has been divided for use among certain geographic locations.
Any number beginning with 000 will NEVER be a valid SSN.
The information in our records about an individual is confidential by law and cannot be disclosed except in certain very restricted cases permitted by regulations.

* = New areas allocated, but not yet issued

** 700-728 Issuance of these numbers to railroad employees was discontinued July 1, 1963.

well i guess then theres a few more , perhaps 40 or so years until they need changing

SS# get reused after so many years have passed since the death of that number

wow, they have my # &state wrong.. anyone elses?

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

Also true, they didnt start from 000000000. right?

soon their will be chips in our arms and the need for paper info will not be needed.

Nah, you will be able to get them on Ebay soon :-)

what is social security?

commie shit

they recycle them, after the x owner has been dead for so long they recycle them into the system thats why yours can be 111-11-1111 and your buddy who was born after you has 111-10-1000 so says the ss office i was just at lol

they should make cards that have photos on them so no one be become you when you loose it.

As long as we're talking about SSN, I encourage all of you to write or call your Congressman and asked them to cosponsor the Identity Theft Protection Act.

http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/co...5/cr010605.htm

The act calls for the issuance of new social security numbers and that "these new numbers will be the sole legal property of the recipient, and the Social Security administration shall be forbidden to divulge the numbers for any purposes not related to Social Security administration."

Actually there are 999,999,999 posible SS#'s :)

jDoG

Thinking about this makes you crazy. lol. I will like to see what happens though when/if they run out.

1. The numbers are reused, as others have already mentioned.

2. There are instances in which more than one person were assigned the same SS#; one would assume such errors are eventually caught automatically, but then that would be assuming too much :(

From a programming perspective, beyond all the various privacy reasons of late, using SS# as an index is also bad practice due to that SS# *not* guaranteed to be unique, duplicate issuance, have no built-in checksum, etc.

For some programmers, this may come as a shock ... much like how many seconds are in a minute ... 60 right? Nope, for time critical apps, one has to be aware of leap seconds, which means there can be 59, 60, or even 61 seconds in a minute, but I digress ... this isn't Slashdot LOL!

Ron