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UK Driving Licence Numbers Explained

(This page was last updated on the 19/01/2025)

English, Welsh and Scottish Driving Licence Numbers are a 16-digit code which is unique to the Licence Holder, which contains information about their Name, Sex (identified gender) and Date of Birth. This information is written in a special format, but it can be gleaned and matched against the information provided by the licence holder. It should be noted that the date of birth on English, Welsh and Scottish driving licences issued before 1977 are not recorded as a separate entry on the actual Driving Licence.

For example the format of a UK Driving Licence Number for a Christine Josephine Robinson, a female, whose date of birth is the 7th March 1995, would be shown as;

Whilst, the format of a UK Driving Licence Number for a John David Collins, a male, whose date of birth is the 21st November 2004, would be shown as;

N = 1st five letters of the surname (if the surname begins MAC or MC it is treated as MC for all), but if it is less than five letters the remaining spaces are filled with the number 9

Y = Year of birth
M = Month of birth - in the case of a female, the number represented by the first M will have the value 5 added to the first digit e.g. a female born in November (i.e. 11) would display 61 in the MM boxes, or if born in February (i.e. 02) would display 52
D = Day of the month of birth

I = Initial letter of the first two forenames - if only one, then a 9 will replace the second letter
C = Computer generated

Also you may see a 2-digit number to the right of the 16-digit licence number on a photo style driving licence, which is a licence issue number, and it increases every time you get a new UK Driving Licence, however it does not form part of the licence holders Driving Licence Number.

Note, for Northern Ireland driving licences, the licence number is in a different format. The licence number is unique to the driver and the name and date of birth validation as shown above, is not used.

The following are some more explanations about UK Driving Licences.

     Carwow - UK Driving Licences Explained
     DriverCheck - UK Driving Licences Explained
     DVLA - UK Driving Licence Categories
     NI Government - Northern Ireland Photocard Driving Licences Explained