The social security number or NIR (for identification number in the INSEE directory) is a 13-digit number (plus two digits for the control key) assigned at birth to all children born in France.
It is a “significant” number, i.e. it is not randomly assigned and allows a person to be uniquely identified.
It is used by many organizations, including social and health organizations.
So, how do you check a social security number? The answer in this article with the bonus of our free online tool to verify the information of an NIR with its control key!
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Where can I find the social security number?
The most obvious place to find your social security number is your Carte Vitale.
But it is also possible to find it on:
- certificates of rights from the CAF
- payslips
You can also find it on many documents issued by health organizations (mutual insurance company, hospitals, etc.), your pension fund or your employer.
It is therefore possible to check a social security number by making sure that it is identical on different documents concerning the same person.
What are the 15 digits of the social security number?
- The first digit indicates the gender of the person: 1 for a man, 2 for a woman.
- The second and third digits correspond to the year of birth (e.g., 95 if you were born in 1995, 05 for 2005, etc.).
- The fourth and fifth digits represent the month of birth.
- The numbers six to ten refer to the place of birth, i.e. the department (two digits) followed by the official code of the commune assigned by INSEE (the next three digits).
However, there are a few particularities to be aware of: if you were born in Corsica, the code will be 2A or 2B; if you were born in the Overseas Territories, the number will be 97 or 98; And if you were born abroad, the code will be 99.
- The numbers eleven to thirteen represent the registration number of your birth in the register of the municipality concerned, in order to distinguish people born in the same place on the same day.
- Finally, the digits fourteen and fifteen represent the key to checking all the previous digits.
The very first step in verifying a social security number is to make sure it has the right number of digits!
Who can ask me for my social security number?
Only a few public or private organizations can ask you for your social security number, and for very specific and targeted uses:
- Social security bodies;
- Health professionals in the context of exchanges with compulsory or complementary health insurance bodies;
- Employers, public or private, for payroll management and the calculation of contributions paid to social protection bodies;
- Pôle emploi for the payment of social security contributions for job seekers;
- Certain organizations authorized on an ad hoc basis by the CNIL.
Source: CNIL
How do I check a Social Security number / How do I know if a Social Security number is correct?
There are several solutions to check a social security number depending on the case:
– compare information extracted from the social security number such as gender, date of birth and department of birth to compare it with other documents
– check the validity of the control key from the 13 digits of the NIR
How is the social security number key calculated?
One of the quickest and most convenient solutions to verify a social security number is to check the validity of its control key.
To do this, the following formula must be applied:
– (first 13 digits of the NIR) / 97 -> we take the whole part and multiply it by 97, then subtract it from the first 13 digits of the NIR, which we then subtract from 97
Let’s take an example!
The NIR is: 1,901,233,060,300
– 1,901,233,060,300 / 97 = 19,600,340,827.83
We keep the whole part and multiply it by 97:
– 19,600,340,827 * 97 = 1,901,233,060,219
We subtract the result from the NIR:
– 1,901,233,060,300 – 1,901,233,060,219 = 81
We subtract the result from 97:
– 97 – 81 = 16
The control key must therefore be equal to 16 to be valid !
Our free online tool to verify a social security number
Much more convenient and faster to check a social security number: use our free online tool below!
Conclusion
The social security number is assigned to any child born in France, or later in life in other circumstances.
It makes it possible to uniquely identify individuals, and therefore represents an issue in terms of personal data (it is therefore important not to give it to just anyone).
However, it is also important to check a social security number to ensure its authenticity, and you can use our free tool above to do so!
Finally, if you need to verify the authenticity of documents as part of a rental application, we offer a dedicated service at the following address:
