The place of birth (POB) or birthplace is the place where a person was born. This place is often used in legal documents, together with

name A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A personal ...

and date of birth, to uniquely identify a person. Practice regarding whether this place should be a country, a territory or a city/town/locality differs in different countries, but often city or territory is used for native-born citizen passports and countries for foreign-born ones. As a general rule with respect to passports, if the place of birth is to be a country, it's determined to be the country that currently has ''

sovereignty Sovereignty is the defining authority within individual consciousness, social construct, or territory. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within the state, as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the person ...

'' over the actual place of birth, regardless of when the birth actually occurred. The place of birth is not necessarily the place where the parents of the new baby live. If the baby is born in a

hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emergency ...

in another place, that place is the place of birth. In many countries, this also means that the government requires that the birth of the new baby is registered in the place of birth. Some countries place less or no importance on the place of birth, instead using alternative geographical characteristics for the purpose of identity documents. For example,

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

has used the concept of ''födelsehemort'' ("domicile of birth") since 1947. This means that the domicile of the baby's mother is the registered place of birth."Newborn children are registered as born in the parish where the mother was registered at the time of delivery." ''Tables on the population of Sweden 2006, page 430'' The location of the maternity ward or other physical birthplace is considered unimportant. Similarly,

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

uses the concept of

place of origin In Switzerland, the place of origin (german: Heimatort or Bürgerort, literally "home place" or "citizen place"; french: Lieu d'origine; it, Luogo d'origine) denotes where a Swiss citizen has their municipal citizenship, usually inherited from prev ...

. A child born to Swiss parents is automatically assigned the place of origin of the parent with the same last name, so the child either gets their mother's or father's place of origin. A child born to one Swiss parent and one foreign parent acquires the place of origin of their Swiss parent. In a

Swiss passport A Swiss passport is the passport issued to citizens of Switzerland to facilitate international travel. Beside serving as proof of Swiss citizenship, they facilitate the process of securing assistance from Swiss consular officials abroad. The pas ...

and

identity card An identity document (also called ID or colloquially as papers) is any document that may be used to prove a person's identity. If issued in a small, standard credit card size form, it is usually called an identity card (IC, ID card, citizen ca ...

, the holder's place of origin is stated, not their place of birth. In Japan, the

registered domicile In Japan, a registered domicile (本籍, ''honseki'') is the place where a Japanese citizen is considered to have their roots. It determines the city/ward/town office where their koseki is kept. Features A registered domicile is not necessari ...

is a similar concept. In some countries (primarily in the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with t ...

), the place of birth automatically determines the

nationality Nationality is a legal identification of a person in international law, establishing the person as a subject, a ''national'', of a sovereign state. It affords the state jurisdiction over the person and affords the person the protection of the ...

of the baby, a practice often referred to by the

Latin phrase __NOTOC__ This is a list of Wikipedia articles of Latin phrases and their translation into English. ''To view all phrases on a single, lengthy document, see: List of Latin phrases (full)'' The list also is divided alphabetically into twenty page ...

'' jus soli''. Almost all countries outside the Americas instead attribute nationality based on the nationality(-ies) of the baby's parents (referred to as ''

jus sanguinis ( , , ; 'right of blood') is a principle of nationality law by which citizenship is determined or acquired by the nationality or ethnicity of one or both parents. Children at birth may be citizens of a particular state if either or both of t ...

''). There can be some confusion regarding the place of birth if the birth takes place in an unusual way: when babies are born on an

airplane An airplane or aeroplane (informally plane) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wing configurations. The broad spectr ...

or at

sea The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Sea, ...

, difficulties can arise. The place of birth of such a person depends on the law of the countries involved, which include the nationality of the plane or ship, the nationality(-ies) of the parents and/or the location of the plane or ship (if the birth occurs in the

territorial waters The term territorial waters is sometimes used informally to refer to any area of water over which a sovereign state has jurisdiction, including internal waters, the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone, and potent ...

airspace Airspace is the portion of the atmosphere controlled by a country above its territory, including its territorial waters or, more generally, any specific three-dimensional portion of the atmosphere. It is not the same as aerospace, which is the ...

of a country). Some administrative forms may request the applicant's "country of birth". It is important to determine from the requester whether the information requested refers to the applicant's "place of birth" or "nationality at birth". For example, US citizens born abroad who acquire US citizenship at the time of birth, the nationality at birth will be USA (American), while the place of birth would be the country in which the actual birth takes place.

Reference list

8 FAM 403.4 Place of Birth
{{Authority control * Human migration