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 person ...

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 can generally be defined as supreme authority. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within a state as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the person, body or institution that has the ultimate au ...

'' 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 healthcare institution providing patient treatment with specialized Medical Science, health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically ...

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, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

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 Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

uses the concept of

place of origin In Switzerland, the place of origin (, literally "home place" or "citizen place"; ; , literally "place of relevance") denotes where a Swiss citizen has their municipal citizenship, usually inherited from previous generations. It is not to be confus ...

. 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 The Swiss passport is a biometric passport, biometric identity document issued by the Swiss Confederation. It can be ordinary or provisional, or in special cases, diplomatic or service-related. There is also a green Swiss passport for foreigners ...

and

identity card An identity document (abbreviated as ID) is a documentation, document proving a person's Identity (social science), identity. If the identity document is a plastic card it is called an ''identity card'' (abbreviated as ''IC'' or ''ID card''). ...

, 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 necessar ...

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

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

), the place of birth automatically determines the

nationality Nationality is the legal status of belonging to a particular nation, defined as a group of people organized in one country, under one legal jurisdiction, or as a group of people who are united on the basis of culture. In international law, n ...

of the baby, a practice often referred to by the

Latin phrase 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). Lists of pages * List of Latin phrases (A) * List of Latin phrases ( ...

jus soli ''Jus soli'' ( or , ), meaning 'right of soil', is the right of anyone born in the territory of a state to nationality or citizenship. ''Jus soli'' was part of the English common law, in contrast to ''jus sanguinis'' ('right of blood') ass ...

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

jus sanguinis ( or , ), meaning 'right of blood', is a principle of nationality law by which nationality is determined or acquired by the nationality of one or both parents. Children at birth may be nationals of a particular state if either or both of thei ...

'').

References

External links

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