Info & Definition Swedish Personal Identity Numbers

The personal identity number (personnummer) is the Swedish national identification number. It is a ten or twelve digit number that is used in Sweden to identify individuals.

Pattern

The official version of a Swedish Personal Identity Number (defined in law) follow this pattern:

  • YYMMDD-BBBC
  • YYMMDD+BBBC

The delimiter is - (hyphen) by default but changes to + (plus) the year you turn 100. See details below.

It's quite common to leave the hyphen out, like this:

  • YYMMDDBBBC

When stored or handled in a structured way, the law states you should handle it with the full length of the year, like this:

  • YYYYMMDDBBBC

Parts

The parts are:

Birthdate

The first 6 digits correspond to the person's birthday.

Note: In case the specific day is out of numbers, another day (close to the correct one) is used.

  • YY: Year
  • MM: Month
  • DD: Day

Delimiter

They are followed by a hyphen or a plus.
By default it is a hyphen, but the year a person turns 100 the hyphen with a plus sign.

Note: A common misunderstanding is that the hyphen is replaced with a plus sign when the person turns 100 years old, but according to the definition, it happens the first of January that year.

  • -: Hyphen delimiter
  • +: Plus delimiter

Birth number

Among the four last digits, the three first are a birth number (serial number).

Note: For the last digit among these three, an odd number is assigned to males and an even number to females.

  • BBB: Birth number

Checksum

The last digit is a checksum calculated using the Luhn algorithm.

To calculate the checksum: Use the 10 digit version, multiply the individual digits in the identity number and 212121-212. The resulting products (a two digit product, such as 16, would be converted to 1 + 6) are added together. The checksum is the last digit of 10 minus the last digit in this sum (note that if the last digit of the sum is zero, the checksum is 0).

  • C: Checksum

Sources

The definition of a Swedish personal identity number is described in Swedish law (Folkbokföringslagen), there are also other sources for clarifications listed below.