South African ID number format

The_Ogre

The_Ogre

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Since @Papa Smurf wants me to post a new thread every day this week, here goes today's.

@supersunbird and I were discussing the group of digits indicating a new-born's gender. 803065125089 (this is a random ID number) would mean that was the 125th male birth registered on that day and 8805220097082 would mean that was the 97th female birth registered that day. So it's clear that our government assumed that there will never be more than 5000 births registered for a gender in any given day.

With a population of over 60m now, statistically it means that this could have been a mistake as you cannot use any of the other digits :eek:
 
The 11th and 12th digits can also be used as spill-over. Only certain values are currently allocated for these two digits.
 
Why would we run out of numbers when birth rates are declining which means the older population increases meaning even less breeding age people?

Also who is papa smurf and why are you his bitch?
 
The last 2 digits of my ID number changed from 005 to 088 in 1999 when I got a new id book(my original was from '83)

What were/are the last 3 digits for, excl m/f?
 
MirageF1 said:
The last 2 digits of my ID number changed from 005 to 088 in 1999 when I got a new id book(my original was from '83)

What were/are the last 3 digits for, excl m/f?
Click to expand...

ethnicity(race) i beleive, but they dropped that
 
MirageF1 said:
The last 2 digits of my ID number changed from 005 to 088 in 1999 when I got a new id book(my original was from '83)

What were/are the last 3 digits for, excl m/f?
Click to expand...
  • The first six digits (YYMMDD) represent your date of birth
  • The next four digits (SSSS) are used to define your gender – females are assigned numbers ranging between 0000-4999 and males from 5000-9999.
  • The next digit shows if you are a SA citizen – 0 – or a permanent resident – 1.
  • The second last number was used until the late 1980’s to indicate a person’s race, however, eliminated and old ID numbers were reissued to remove this.
  • The last digit is used to check that the number sequence is accurate using the Luhn algorithm.
 
R13... said:
Why would we run out of numbers when birth rates are declining which means the older population increases meaning even less breeding age people?

Also who is papa smurf and why are you his bitch?
Click to expand...

countrymeters.info

South Africa population (2026) live — Countrymeters

The current population of South Africa is 63,093,676 as of Tuesday, May 05, 2026. Population clock live, current, historical and projected population. Births, deaths and migration of population.
countrymeters.info countrymeters.info

1601970169582.png

Looks like we will still have a few years to go
 
LOTR said:
The 11th and 12th digits can also be used as spill-over. Only certain values are currently allocated for these two digits.
Click to expand...
No, you can't use any of the other digits. 08 indicates your citizen status and the last digit is a check digit.
 
MirageF1 said:
The last 2 digits of my ID number changed from 005 to 088 in 1999 when I got a new id book(my original was from '83)

What were/are the last 3 digits for, excl m/f?
Click to expand...
Last 3 numbers were: citizenship - race - parity check

Race was 0 - 7 so now everyone's "race" number should be 8.
 
The_Ogre said:
No, you can't use any of the other digits. 08 indicates your citizen status and the last digit is a check digit.
Click to expand...
Yes you can
08 = SA citizen currently, so they can also make 28 = SA citizen as a spill over going forward. (I think 22 is Asylum seeker and 23 = Refugee. Others have a usage as well).
 
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