what is duns number

A DUNS number is a unique nine-digit identifier assigned by Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) to a single business entity. It was introduced in 1963 to support D&B's credit reporting practice and is used worldwide. The DUNS number is used to identify a company as being unique from any other in the Dun & Bradstreet Data Cloud. It is typically used by businesses to access credit profiles and evaluate potential partners. While it was previously used by the United States federal government to uniquely identify entities, the government now uses the Unique Entity ID created in SAM.gov. The DUNS number is free to obtain and is typically issued within 24 to 48 hours. It is site-specific, meaning that each distinct physical location of an entity may be assigned a different DUNS number.