SSN numbers are good for 999,999,999 people alive or dead. At some point the US will hit that, right? Do we start reusing numbers? Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.

  • phoneymouse@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    But people have been born and died, no? I’m sure total used is closer to something like 500-600 million?

    • Hegar@fedia.io
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      1 month ago

      Yeah the total number of SSNs already used would be higher than the current population, I would think. It didn’t seem to me that poster was trying to estimate SSNs used/left, just provide some important numbers as relevant context.

      It’s been going since 1936 so ~90 years, and they reckon ~70 years left, so we have 45% duration remaining. I’m guessing the rate of use speeds up over time and that has been accounted for, so probably we have more than 45% of the actual numbers left? I think I’d guess 450 million total used ssns.