Danish civil registration number (CPR number)

Since 1968, Denmark has kept a register of everyone who lives or has lived in Denmark. This register is called the Central Person Register (CPR). The purpose of the CPR is to record basic personal data about people, and to ensure that people are registered in the CPR at the address where they are actually living or staying. Everyone who is registered in the CPR is issued with a civil registration number (often called a CPR number).

Are you eligible to receive a Danish civil registration number?

You will be issued with a civil registration number once your municipality of residence has assessed that you meet the requirements to be registered as a resident.   

In addition, children born in Denmark to a mother who is already registered in the CPR are automatically assigned a civil registration number and registered in the CPR.

If you do not need to be registered as a resident in the CPR, you can be assigned a civil registration number for the purposes of:

• Tax payment (assigned by SKAT – the Tax Agency)
• Inclusion in ATP (assigned by ATP – the Danish Labour Market Supplementary Pension Fund) 
• Registration in the church register, e.g. at birth or upon baptism into the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark (assigned by the parish)
• Issuing of a special residence permit (assigned by the Danish Agency for the Labour Market and Recruitment)
• Registration of diplomats in the Protocol of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under Section 47(1) of the Aliens Act (assigned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs).

If you are required to pay tax in Denmark, but you are not registered as a resident, you must request a civil registration number from the Tax Agency.  

An administrative civil registration number (personal tax number) is a real civil registration number, so if you later move to Denmark, you will be registered in the CPR under the same number you received from the Tax Agency.

If your child was born abroad, and lives abroad, your child is not entitled to a civil registration number, even if he or she is a Danish citizen.

Your child will only receive a Danish civil registration number when he or she moves to Denmark and meets the requirements to be registered as a resident, or to have a civil registration number issued by another authority.

However, if your child is baptised in the the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark, the parish will give the child a civil registration number. If your child later moves to Denmark, he or she will retain the civil registration number given to him or her by the parish.  

Please note that your child, as a Danish citizen, may have a Danish passport without having a Danish civil registration number. 

In some cases it is possible to obtain a new civil registration number

You can receive a civil registration number if there are errors in your current civil registration number, or in special cases if the civil registration number is being misused in connection with theft of your identity.

Since the last digit of the civil registration number indicates your gender, you have the option, if you are transgender, of having a new civil registration number assigned to you, so that it corresponds to your gender identity.

You can read more on the website of the Central Personal Register.

Danish civil registration numbers consist of ten digits. The first six digits indicate the birthday of the registered person, while the last four digits are so-called serial numbers, which are assigned ‘at random’ . The last digit is always an even number for women, and an odd number for men.

• 1st-2nd position indicates the person’s date of birth.
• 3rd-4th position indicate the person’s month of birth.
• 5th-6th position indicate the person’s year of birth, without the century.
• 7th-10th position is a serial number.
• The combination of digits in positions 5, 6 and 7 indicates the century in which the person was born, and the 10th position of the civil registration number indicates the person’s gender.