What Does Your Social Security Number Say About You

Michelle Wilson - October 20, 2022

Although you probably know your social by heart, you may not fully understand what the nine digits reveal. For most Americans, the Social Security Number offers special significance. It follows individuals from birth until death, acting as the key to various sensitive information. Items like bank accounts, residences, and driver’s license information are all attached to the Social Security Number.

Table of Contents

FDR’s passage of the Social Security Act offered millions of individuals a new financial safety net. Protections include disability, old age, and survivor’s insurance. It also provided supplementary security income for the disabled and elderly. The program works through Social Security taxes paid by employers and employees and becomes available to individuals once they’ve retired or otherwise become eligible.

After the Act’s passage, the Social Security Administration (SSA) needed an efficient method of tracking each citizen’s earning records over a lifetime. Today, more than 450 million people have received a social security number.

Everyone living in the United States requires a social security number. People need it for doctor’s office paperwork, tax filings, bank loans, and your driver’s license application. Your social security number currently reveals all kinds of personal details about you, from where you’ve lived, your credit history, and possibly medical conditions.

A social security number is nine digits, grouped into three different parts. These groups include the area number, the group number, and the serial number.

The Area Number

An area number is the first grouping of the social security number. The area number initially indicated the location of the Social Security Administration office where the number was issued (possession, state, or territory). An individual could apply at any office, meaning the area code does not indicate where they’ve lived or worked. The change was issued in 1972 when the Social Security Administration began publishing SSNs from its Baltimore headquarters and assigning area numbers through the mailing address.

Anyone applying for a social security number between 1972 and 2011 will likely have an area number correlating to the mailing address. It’s critical to remember that the area number isn’t reliable for tracing residences, as you can send mail from any location. In 2011, the SSA changed the method area numbers assigned to randomization. As such, anyone applying for an SSN after Jun 2011 received a randomized number with no correlation to location.

The Group Number

The middle section of an individual’s SSN makes administration easier for the SSA. Group numbers range from 01 to 99, allowing Social Security Numbers with the same area number to break into smaller pairings. Again, geographic details aren’t indicated by group number.

The Serial Number

The serial number doesn’t hold any particular significance to the SSN owner’s location. A serial number will range from 0001 to 9999 and is always assigned consecutively within the group number. As a number, the social security number doesn’t disclose anything specific about an individual.

Getting Into Personal Information

Although a social security number doesn’t offer personal information about you, it is still a valuable tool in the verification process. Using a background check, an employer can use the social security number to confirm where you’ve lived, worked, and your criminal history.

Any employer wanting to follow safe and effective hiring practices will run a pre-employment background screening on any potential hire within the company. A background screening offers two essential functions for employers:

The background screening helps an employer confirm any qualifications required for the position within the company. Verification includes education, professional credentials, work history, and all contact information. This affirms the applicant holds the proper qualifications for the position in question.
Pre-screenings help protect businesses, including their employees, assets, and clients. Risks of potentially damaging criminal behavior, lawsuits, and other negative influences can seriously impact the overall functioning of a company.

A few situations may require sharing this unique number with someone else. These scenarios include:

When opening an account with a U.S. financial institution. As of 1970, federal banks require the SSN to open a bank account. Financial institutions use the SSN to check credit, report investment income or losses, include tax-deductible interest to IRS, or manage your account.
When applying for a federal loan. The government will use the Social Security number to ensure eligibility when applying for a federal loan.
When accepting a new position at work. Anytime you get hired for a new position, your employer will ask for your Social Security number. The accounting department needs this number to report your revenue to the IRS and your Social Security wages.

A social security number is an invaluable tool for screening, especially when performing background checks. The social security number doesn’t offer an applicant’s snapshot, but it provides a critical framework for employers to ask more profound questions or mitigate unnecessary risk overall.

First, the social security number verifies an individual’s identity. Your social security number is always attached to one name and one birthday. Should you have a common name, the SSN, birthday, middle name, and other corresponding information will confirm your actual identity.

Second, the social security number tracks several types of personal transactions. A background check searches through multiple sources, including mailing addresses, credit bureaus, and public records, to pull information on an individual. Many background checks will go back at least seven years to ensure accuracy, name summaries, and date of birth. Most social security number searches will also reveal a candidate’s work history and credit information.

Criminal records are not tied to a specific social security number. An individual’s criminal charge may or may not include the SSN, making a clean criminal record check using only the SSN obsolete. Using the information obtained from the SSN check (including names and aliases) and former addresses, criminal records databases can determine evidence of an individual’s criminal history. It is also only part of the story. While the SSN doesn’t disclose criminal history, running a thorough background check without additional information is difficult.

Conclusion

Although the social security number doesn’t disclose anything in particular with the digits, it does contain a wealth of information about you that should never end up in the wrong hands. Always remain cautious with your number and confirm why they need it to proceed with the application. When used alongside other pieces of identifying information, the social security number is a valuable tool for employers looking to vet their employees thoroughly.