The Year Michigan Got Its First Area Codes

The question that has not been on everyone’s lips is “When did Michigan get its first area codes?”

I don’t know ANYone who has ever asked this question...so I thought I would, and get it over with.

When I did some research on this, I was surprised to find out it was much earlier than I expected. Our state’s first area codes showed up as far back as 1947. In that year, three area codes were issued to us: 313, 517, and 616. It was in 1947 when the North American Numbering Plan was established. At the time, the country had a total of 86 area codes.

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Now in the 2020s, Michigan has a total of 12 area codes, The other nine are:
906 (1961)
810 (1993)
248 and 734 (1997)
231 (1999)
586 and 989 (2001)
269 and 947 (2002)

There is a plan to add another area code, 679, and overlay it with the 313 Wayne County area code. They’ve already done this with Northern Meto Detroit, giving it two numbers; 248 & 947.

But again, in answer to the question nobody asked, our first area codes were 313, 517, and 616 in 1947.