--- title: "henkilötunnus" translation: "Finland's personal identity code." type: "word" category: "standard" url: "https://finnishirl.com/words/henkilotunnus" canonical: "https://finnishirl.com/words/henkilotunnus" published: "2026-10-18" updated: "2026-10-18" author: "Andrey the Nomad" site: "Finnish IRL" license: "https://finnishirl.com/terms#ip" --- # henkilötunnus URL: https://finnishirl.com/words/henkilotunnus Translation: Finland's personal identity code. Pronunciation: /ˈheŋkiløˌtunːus/ Category: standard Archetypes: survival Region: Finland Register: neutral, official Literal meaning: Person identifier. Tone and safety: Safe to say at a counter. Not safe to publish - it identifies you completely. Published: 2026-10-18 Quick answer: - The henkilötunnus is Finland's personal identity code. Hetu is what everyone calls it. - It is the key to everything administrative: a bank account, a salary, health care, benefits, a phone contract. Very little starts before you have one. - It is eleven characters long and none of them is random. The first six are your birthday, and one of the last three has been telling every clerk in the country whether you are male or female. What it means: - The henkilötunnus identifies you across every Finnish system at once. Tax, health care, banking, employment and benefits all key off the same eleven characters. - It reads DDMMYY, then a character for the century, then a three-digit individual number, then a check character. So 010190-123M is someone born on the first of January 1990, and the M at the end is calculated from the other nine digits. - The individual number does more than count people. Odd numbers are issued to men and even numbers to women, so anyone who has ever seen your hetu has read your date of birth and your registered sex off it without being told either. - Finland has been trying to change that since 2020 and has not managed it yet. A working group proposed dropping the sex link from codes issued from 2027; the bill reached Parliament in February 2023 and lapsed without passing. The parity is still there today, and the plan is now waiting on a government willing to pick it up again. - The last character is a checksum. Take the nine digits as a number, divide by 31, and the remainder picks a character out of a fixed set of thirty-one: 0123456789ABCDEFHJKLMNPRSTUVWXY. G, I, O, Q and Z are missing on purpose, because in handwriting they get read as digits. How Finns use it: - Constantly, and out loud. Reading your hetu across a pharmacy counter is completely routine and nobody lowers their voice to do it. - Hetu is what people say. Henkilötunnus is what the form prints. Sotu is the older word and you will still hear it, mostly from older speakers. - The three-digit individual number is not a serial for the whole population, only for people born on that exact date, and it runs from 002 to 899. The 900s are reserved for temporary codes issued when an identity has not been confirmed. - That produced a problem few people outside the registry saw coming. Popular birth dates were heading for exhaustion, so from 1 January 2023 the century character was expanded: the 1900s can now be a hyphen or Y, X, W, V or U, and the 2000s can be A through F. The agency issued the first code with a Y on 19 December 2023, days after running out of codes for the single most common birth date. - That change has a practical edge for anyone building systems. The separator is now part of what makes a code unique, so two different people can share a birth date and an individual number and be told apart only by that one character. - The order is permit, then code, then a kotikunta decision, which is your registered municipality of residence. Most Kela benefits wait on the last of those and not the first, which is why people who already have a hetu are still sitting in a queue. The process has changed more than once in the last decade, so check the current one. Tone and safety: - Saying it aloud at a pharmacy or a clinic desk is normal and expected. - It is sensitive data. It goes a long way towards impersonating you, so it does not belong in a public post, a casual email, or the hands of anyone with no reason to hold it. Common mistake: - Assuming the permit is the end of the process. The gap between landing and being fully registered catches people out: permit, then code, then a kotikunta decision. - Expecting a bank account without one. In practice most banks want a code and an address first. Basic payment account rights do exist for EEA residents with valid ID, so a flat refusal is not the end of it. - Confusing it with the Kela card or a tax card. You need the code before you can get either. - Storing or copying a hetu without its century character. Two people can now differ by that character alone, and dropping it merges them. Examples - Asking for a henkilötunnus, and what people call it: - Asked of anybody newly arrived, because almost nothing starts without one. Onks sulla henkilötunnus jo? - Do you have a personal identity code yet? - Hetu is what people say. Henkilötunnus is what the form prints. Sanoisitko hetun? - Could you give me your identity code? Examples - Where a henkilötunnus is asked for out loud: - In practice most banks want the code and an address before anything opens. Ilman hetua ei saa pankkitiliä. - You can't get a bank account without an identity code. - Said across a pharmacy counter, out loud, and nobody lowers their voice to do it. Sano hetu, niin mä katon. - Give me your identity code and I'll have a look. Examples - Keeping your henkilötunnus to yourself, and what it unlocks: - It goes a long way towards impersonating you. The counter is fine, a public post is not. Älä laita hetua mihinkään julkiseen. - Don't put your identity code anywhere public. - The order most benefits wait on. People who already have a hetu are still in a queue. Ensin lupa, sit hetu, sit kotikunta. - First the permit, then the code, then the municipality. Mini dialogue: A: Mä sain oleskeluluvan. B: Onneks olkoon. Onks sulla hetu? A: Mikä hetu? B: Se numero. Ilman sitä sä et saa pankkitiliä. A: Ei kukaan sanonu. B: Ei ne sano. FAQ: Q: What is a henkilötunnus? A: Finland's personal identity code, the eleven characters that identify you in tax, health care, banking, employment and benefits systems. Q: What do the characters mean? A: Your birth date as DDMMYY, then a character for the century, then a three-digit individual number, then a check character calculated from the rest. Q: Does it show my gender? A: Yes, through the individual number: odd for men, even for women. A reform to strip that out of newly issued codes from 2027 was drafted, reached Parliament in February 2023 and lapsed without passing, so as things stand the parity is still there. Q: Why were new letters added in 2023? A: Because the supply of codes for common birth dates was running out. From 1 January 2023 the 1900s gained Y, X, W, V and U alongside the hyphen, and the 2000s gained B to F alongside A. Q: What is hetu? A: The everyday short form of henkilötunnus. Hetu is what people say; sotu is the older word. Q: Can I open a bank account without one? A: In practice most banks want a code and a registered address first. Basic payment account rights do exist for EEA residents with valid ID, so a flat refusal is not the end of it. Q: Is it safe to give out? A: At a pharmacy or clinic counter, yes, that is routine. Do not publish it or hand it to anyone with no reason to hold it. Related words: kela, vuoronumero, vessa Sources: - Finland introduces new characters in personal identity codes to meet future demand (Helsinki Times, 21 December 2023): https://www.helsinkitimes.fi/finland/finland-news/domestic/24676-finland-introduces-new-characters-in-personal-identity-codes-to-meet-future-demand.html - hetu: structure and validation of the Finnish personal identity code (Comprehensive R Archive Network): https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/hetu/vignettes/hetu.html - Henkilötunnuksen uudistaminen (Finanssiala ry, Finance Finland): https://www.finanssiala.fi/aiheet/henkilotunnusten-uudistaminen/ - Vero - for individuals (Verohallinto, Finnish Tax Administration): https://www.vero.fi/en/individuals/ - Kela - the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela): https://www.kela.fi/main-page - Kela card - do you need one? (Kela): https://www.kela.fi/kela-card - Kielitoimiston sanakirja: henkilötunnus, tunnus (Kotimaisten kielten keskus): https://www.kielitoimistonsanakirja.fi/#/henkilötunnus