National Identification Number - Iceland

Iceland

All living Icelanders, as well as all foreign citizens residing in Iceland and all corporations and institutions, have a personal identification number (Icelandic: kennitala, lit. identification number) identifying them in the National Registry. This number is composed of 10 digits, of which the first six are the individual's 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 1900-1999, or '0' for the period 2000-2099). An example would be 120174-3389, 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 identification number is unusually open and extensive in Iceland. Businesses and universities typically use the kennitala as a customer or student identifier, and all banking transactions must include it. The National Registry (Icelandic: Þjóðskrá) oversees the system. A database matching names to numbers is freely accessible (after login) on all Icelandic online banking sites. Given this openness, it is not surprising that 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.