Unique Master Citizen Number (, JMBG / , , , EMŠO) is an identification number that was assigned to every citizen of former Yugoslav republics of the SFR Yugoslavia. It continues to be used in its original form in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia.

Croatia has switched to a new identification number called the Personal Identification Number (, OIB).

History

The JMBG was introduced in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on January 8, 1977Law on the introduction of the Unique Master Citizen Number (»Official Gazette of SFRY«, No. 58/76., reg. 840., pp 1823. & 1824.) was published on 1976-12-31. The Law reached validity on 1977-01-08. The Article 12 of the Law gave a five years deadline for the introduction of the Unique Master Citizen Number. and applied to all citizens born before then and alive at the time. All six republics passed a law on the Unique Master Citizen Number.

Although the Republic of Croatia continued to use the JMBG after gaining independenceCroatian Law on JMBG from 1992 – Zakon o matičnom broju – Narodne novine 1992-9 in 2002 the official name of the number there was changed to Matični broj građana (Master Citizen Number), acronym MBG. Changes in the Croatian Law on MBG from 2002 – Zakon o izmjenama i dopunama Zakona o matičnom broju – Narodne novine 2002-66 Full text of the Croatian master citizen number law at the Croatian Ministry of Interior Affairs Advocates of the right to privacy argued that JMBG was a piece of personally identifiable information that needed to be protected by information privacy law, mostly because it was unique and it included the person's date of birth. When the law to that effect was passed in 2003, Narodne novine 2003-103 JMBG was removed from identity cards, driver's licenses and similar documents. In 2009, Croatia passed a new law, Narodne novine 2008-60 that introduced a different unique identifier called the Personal Identification Number (, OIB). The OIB consists of 11 randomly chosen digits and has been assigned to all Croatian citizens, companies registered in Croatia and foreign nationals residing in Croatia.OIB – Croatia MBG no longer appears on Croatian identity cards since 2003, instead OIB does, since 2013. Since 2023, the OIB is exclusively used in Croatia.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2001 the official name of the number was changed to Jedinstveni matični broj (Unique Master Number), although acronym JMBG is still in use.

Composition

The number is made up of 13 digits in a form "DD MM YYY RR BBB K" (whitespaces are for convenience; digits are written without separation) where: DD – day of birth

MM – month of birth

YYY – last three digits of the year of birth

RR – political region Agreement on allocation of registry numbers for the Unique Master Citizen Number (»Official Gazette of SFRY«, No. 13/78., reg. 240.) of birth (for persons born before 1976, political region where they were first registered) 01-08 – foreign citizens Bylaw on the means for determining the Unique Master Foreigner Number (»Official Gazette of SFRY«, No. 43/80., reg. 705., pp 1431. & 1431.) published on 1980-08-01 and reached legal validity on 1980-08-09. This bylaw determined by its Article 5 the registry numbers for the Unique Master Foreigner Number. without citizenship of former Yugoslavia or succeeding countries (foreign citizens that receive citizenship also receive a 'regular' JMBG, not this 'foreigners only' one) 01 – foreigners in Bosnia and Herzegovina 02 – foreigners in Montenegro 03 – foreigners in Croatia 04 – foreigners in Macedonia 05 – foreigners in Slovenia 06 – foreigners in Central Serbia 07 – foreigners in Vojvodina 08 – foreigners in Kosovo 00 and 09 – naturalized citizens which had no republican citizenshipRegistry numbers 00 and 09 were allocated to the Federal Secretariat for Internal Affairs and were used for naturalized citizens of the SFRY who had no republican citizenship. In Croatia, registry numbers 00 were to be used in case of filling out the quota of the registry number 03. 10–19 – Bosnia and Herzegovina 10 – Banja Luka 11 – Bihać 12 – Doboj 13 – Goražde 14 – Livno 15 – Mostar 16 – Prijedor 17 – Sarajevo 18 – Tuzla 19 – Zenica

20–29 – Montenegro 20 – (not in use) 21 – Podgorica, Danilovgrad, Kolašin 22 – Bar, Ulcinj 23 – Budva, Kotor, Tivat 24 – Herceg Novi 25 – Cetinje 26 – Nikšić, Plužine, Šavnik 27 – Berane, Rožaje, Plav, Andrijevica 28 – Bijelo Polje, Mojkovac 29 – Pljevlja, Žabljak

30–39 – Croatia (no longer used) 30 – Osijek, Slavonia region 31 – Bjelovar, Virovitica, Koprivnica, Pakrac, Podravina region 32 – Varaždin, Međimurje region 33 – Zagreb 34 – Karlovac, Kordun region 35 – Gospić, Lika region 36 – Rijeka, Pula, Gorski kotar, Istria and Croatian Littoral regions 37 – Sisak, Banovina region 38 – Split, Zadar, Šibenik, Dubrovnik, Dalmatia region 39 – Hrvatsko Zagorje and mixed 41–49 – Macedonia 41 – Bitola 42 – Kumanovo 43 – Ohrid 44 – Prilep 45 – Skopje 46 – Strumica 47 – Tetovo 48 – Veles 49 – Štip

50–59 – Slovenia (only 50 was used until 2024) 60–69 – (Citizens with temporary residence)

70–79 – Central Serbia 70 – Serbian citizens registered abroad at a Serbian diplomatic/consular post (section 4 of the JMBG Law) 71 – Belgrade region (City of Belgrade) 72 – Šumadija and Pomoravlje regions (Šumadija District and Pomoravlje District) 73 – Niš region (Nišava District, Pirot District and Toplica District) 74 – Southern Morava region (Jablanica District and Pčinja District) 75 – Zaječar region (Zaječar District and Bor District) 76 – Podunavlje region (Podunavlje District and Braničevo District) 77 – Podrinje and Kolubara regions (Mačva District and Kolubara District) 78 – Kraljevo region (Raška District, Moravica District and Rasina District) 79 – Užice region (Zlatibor District)

80–89 – Autonomous province of Vojvodina 80 – Novi Sad region (South Bačka District) 81 – Sombor region (West Bačka District) 82 – Subotica region (North Bačka District) 84 – Kikinda region (North Banat District) 85 – Zrenjanin region (Central Banat District) 86 – Pančevo region (South Banat District) 87 – Vršac region (South Banat District) 88 – Ruma region (part of Syrmia District) 89 – Sremska Mitrovica region (part of Syrmia District)

90–99 – Autonomous province of Kosovo 91 – Priština region (Kosovo District) 92 – Kosovska Mitrovica region (Kosovska Mitrovica District) 93 – Peć region (part of Peć District) 94 – Đakovica region (part of Peć District) 95 – Prizren region (Prizren District) 96 – Gnjilane region (Kosovo-Pomoravlje District)

BBB – unique number of the particular RR (represents a person within the DDMMYYYRR section in the particular municipality) 000–499 – male 500–999 – female

K – checksum

Checksum calculation

The checksum is calculated from the mapping = , using the formula: m = 11 − (( 7×(a + g) + 6×(b + h) + 5×(c + i) + 4×(d + j) + 3×(e + k) + 2×(f + l) ) mod 11)

If m is between 1 and 9, the number K is the same as the number m If m is 10 or 11 K becomes 0 (zero)

Note: there has been a small number of JMBGs that were assigned by valid authorities but which had an invalid checksum. Also, there are a few duplicate JMBGs in existence. The common anecdotal explanation for these is simple operator error. Reportedly these mistakes happened more often in the early 1990s. The chances of running into exceptions are reportedly low, and whether such exceptions justify questioning the use of JMBG as a unique identifier has not been scientifically analyzed.

Example

As an example, a valid identification number is 0101006500006; it is the number of the first male baby registered in Slovenia on January 1, 2006.

See also National identification number JMBG protests

References

External links Online validation checking and details of Unique Master Citizen Number