4.11 Personal identity number introduced

In the 1960s the progress of data processing allowed founding of various registers, which enabled fast processing of even sizeable amounts of information.

In 1962 the Central Pension Security Institute formed a register where all beneficiaries of employment pensions were given an employment pension number consisting of the date of birth and its verification part.

The present personal identity number was introduced in 1964 when the Social Insurance Institution of Finland took charge of the implementation of the social security system. All permanent residents of Finland - including citizens of foreign countries - were issued a social security number and their information was stored into the Social Insurance Institution register. The Central Pension Security Institute gave up its own number after a couple of years and started to use the social security number employed by the Social Security Institution.

At the beginning of the 1970s, the Population Register Centre assumed the responsibility for issuing personal identity numbers to children born in Finland and to people moving here permanently.