Are social security numbers recycled? What do the numbers mean?
Dear Cecil: Are Social Security numbers “recycled”? If not, then why is my number lower than my (older) boyfriend’s? If you add the current population (now about 250,000,000) to the number of Americans who have died since 1935 (when Social Security began), wouldn’t the resulting number exceed nine digits in an S.S. number, proving my little theory about recycling? OK, Cecil, tell me I’m full of blarney, but what do the numbers represent? — Lisa W., New York Dear Lisa: You’re full of blarney. We aims to please around here. Cecil wishes he could tell you Social Security numbers were as fraught with meaning as the driver’s license numbers issued by some states, which encode everything but your IQ. But no such luck. Prior to 1973, the first three digits indicated the state of the issuing Social Security office. Since 1973, the first three digits “are determined by the ZIP Code of the mailing address shown on the application for a Social Security number,” it says here. But it’s still basica
