Place of birth

The place of birth is the place where a person was born. This place is often used in legal documents, together with name and date of birth, to uniquely identify a person. 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 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.

In other countries, e.g. in Sweden since 1947, there is a concept of "födelsehemort" ("domicile of birth"), which means that the domicile of the baby's mother is the registered place of birth. The location of the maternity ward or other "physical" birthplace is considered unimportant.

Sometimes the place of birth automatically determines the nationality of the baby, a practice often referred as to with the Latin phrase "jus soli" (it really depends on the Law of the country to give the nationality). More often, this (also) depends on the nationality / ies of the parents (what is referred as to "jus sanguinis").

There can be some confusion on the place of birth if the birth takes place in an unusual way: when babies are born in an airplane or at sea, difficulties can arise. Generally, in those cases, the nationality of the children, under the statements of "ius soli", follows the flag of the plane or ship.