[Mr. K]

"Note: One should not make too much of the "geographical code." It is not meant to be any kind of useable geographical information. The numbering scheme was designed in 1936 (before computers) to make it easier for SSA to store the applications in our files in Baltimore since the files were organized by regions as well as alphabetically. It was really just a bookkeeping device for our own internal use and was never intended to be anything more than that. "

Not make too much..?

On the contrary, this is PRECISELY WHY the numbering scheme for location is so important.

In the olden days before computers, your numbers would have been written on paper and carried around by hand.

So if you wanted to store a thousand applications from Wisconsin, you would hate to have to look at each number and physically walk from drawer to drawer to retrieve or store files. It would take forever to sort and store millions of files in manual bookkeeping times.

So they purposely assigned blocks of numbers to make it easy on themselves. This is not just a 'coincidence' that can be ignored because it is no longer relevant. It was VERY relevant in the beginning, and should not be dismissed with today's thinking.

The history of this is VERY important- NOT something to be lightly dismissed.

[CharlesWayneCT]

WHen they switched over to Baltimore in 1972 for issuing all certificates, everything was on IBM computers, and the numbering scheme was no longer of importance, although they were still incrementing through the group numbers (with all the odds and then all the evens, or maybe the opposite if you believe this report since they are currently on 042-15, and this says Obama has 042-68).

The group code is also being randomized now, so they will no longer track the “current” group code for each “location” code, since it will be meaningless. After July, you’ll just have to request a lookup for each SS number, and not rely on any of the numbering schemes.