SSN Reserved for Future Use
Q: When I conduct a Social Security Number Verification some results show “Reserved for future use” what does this mean?
A: Reserved for Future Use is a denotation defined by the Social Security Administration for numbers in states that have not started to be assigned yet.
An SSN is made up of an Area Group Serial (AAA-GG-SSSS) number. All three numbers combine to make the complete SSN.
The Social Security number consists of nine (9) digits. The first three (3) digits denote the AREA (or State) where the application for an original Social Security number was filed.
Within each area, the GROUP number (middle two (2) digits) range from 01 to 99 but are not assigned in consecutive order.
For administrative reasons, group numbers issued first consist of the ODD numbers from 01 through 09 and then EVEN numbers from 10 through 98, within each area number allocated to a State.
After all numbers in group 98 of a particular area have been issued, the EVEN Groups 02 through 08 are used, followed by ODD Groups 11 through 99.
Within each group, the serial numbers (last four (4) digits) run consecutively from 0001 through 9999. This chart below shows how Group numbers are assigned:
| ODD – 01, 03, 05, 07, 09 | EVEN – 10 to 98 |
| EVEN – 02, 04, 06, 08 | ODD – 11 to 99 |
Even though an SSN provided is a valid number “Reserved for future use” means it has not been issued by that state yet.
For example: According to the SSN the state of MA is assigned to the AREA number 032. However, as of today July 2010 they are only issuing Group Numbers in the 92 series (ie. 032-92-XXXX). After they assign the last number in that series 032-92-9999, they will start issuing 032-94-0001 and so on. An SSN such as 032-98-XXXX has not been issued in that series and therefor is “reserved for future use”.
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