[jamra]

A social security number (SSN) is the same idea. The difference is that not every citizen has one.

The problem with this number is that, similar to Sweden, it can be used as an identity number and as a password. This is a terrible thing to do. In your small country of homogenous socially protected people, you may not have a widespread problem of theft. In the US, however, there is an entire industry of stealing these numbers in order to take out new lines of credit, buy items at stores, and then not pay them off.