What is a Duns Number? Created in 1962, the Data Universal Numbering System, (often referred to as a company D-U-N-S® Number), is D&B’s copyrighted, proprietary means of identifying business entities on a location-specific basis.
Assigned and maintained solely by D&B, this unique nine-digit identification number has been assigned to over 100 million businesses worldwide. This number remains with the company location to which it has been assigned even if it closes or goes out-of-business. To find out your company Duns Number, use our simple online lookup tool.
The D-U-N-S® Number also “unlocks” a wealth of value-added data associated with that entity, including the business name, physical and mailing addresses, tradestyles (“doing business as”), principal names, financial, payment experiences, industry classifications (SICs and NAICS), socio-economic status, government data and more. It also links members of corporate family trees worldwide.
The system is widely used by both commercial and federal entities and was adopted as the standard business identifier for federal electronic commerce in October 1994.
The D-U-N-S® Number was also incorporated into the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) in April 1998 as the Federal Government’s contractor identification code for all procurement-related activities.