# What is meant by place of birth on a passport **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 28, 2011, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-place-of-birth-on-a-passport/576297 "2011-03-28T19:21:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-place-of-birth-on-a-passport/576297/1 "2011-03-28T19:21:33Z")
My parents were pregnant for me in town X, but since it was a small town they went to a hospital in town Y to give birth to me, then brought me back to town X. So do I list town X (where my parents were living and where I was raised) as my place of birth or town Y (where the hospital I was born in was located) as my place of birth? My birth certificate says I was born in town Y, so I am thinking that is the one I use on a passport application. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-place-of-birth-on-a-passport/576297/2 "2011-03-28T19:25:05Z")
Where were you when you emerged from the womb? That’s where you were born. I can only see a problem if you were born on a moving train, car, boat or plane. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-place-of-birth-on-a-passport/576297/3 "2011-03-28T19:25:10Z")
It’s where the hospital was located, not the home that you went back to when a few days old. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-place-of-birth-on-a-passport/576297/4 "2011-03-28T19:49:34Z")
Since your birth certificate is likely to be the supporting document for your passport approval, the town you were born in is the one one listed on the birth certificate. If the two don’t match, there’s a chance your passport application could be refused. Funny story - my grandmother went into labour with my mom while visiting a friend in a town she happened to loathe. This hated town had a perfectly usable hospital. She forced my grandfather to drive back to their home town - about 45 minutes away - because she kept saying “I will NOT have my child be born in W-!!” ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-place-of-birth-on-a-passport/576297/5 "2011-03-28T20:10:53Z")
It’s similar for me. My parents were living in a small city, but went up and across the river to a larger one to give birth to me. I’m not sure if the smaller city even had a full hospital back then, as a larger city was so close. Also, my parents insurance probably wanted them to go to the larger city. My “place of birth” is the larger city, and it’s the one I use to apply for a passport, and what my birth certificate says. Now, my “hometown” or “where I am from” is more liquid - I feel OK saying either the small city or the large one as the my place of origin. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-place-of-birth-on-a-passport/576297/6 "2011-03-28T20:17:28Z")
I was born in a hospital in a different town from where I lived; I always need to use the place where the hospital is located as my place of birth. That’s also where your birth certificate is kept. A town without a hospital only has birth certificates for those born at home. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-place-of-birth-on-a-passport/576297/7 "2011-03-28T20:23:53Z")
Like so many other things, it varies by the legalities of where you are. It will be the place listed in your birth certificate - now, which place is listed? In Spain it used to be the place where you actually exited the womb, but with the advent of maternity wards this meant that there were thousands of villages where the birthrate was exactly zero (many provinces have a single maternity ward and there are places where people prefer to go someplace else which they perceive as having better hospitals - this is a serious problem for Madrid’s medical system, for example). While factually accurate if you like your nits well-picked, it didn’t reflect the actual amounts of babies seen around any of those places. The law was changed to allow parents to record the town where they actually live, the town where the kid would have been born if it was a home birth. It is also possible to change old records to reflect this, although I don’t know anybody who has done it; I do know many people who have used their “home at time of birth location” for place of birth since the law was changed (my nephew for example). ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-place-of-birth-on-a-passport/576297/8 "2011-03-28T20:26:01Z")
Town Y. It’s common tourist trap. Most people avoid it. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-place-of-birth-on-a-passport/576297/9 "2011-03-28T20:56:28Z")
Yup, the one on your birth certificate. They don’t actually care where you grew up, esp. if it’s within the the country whose passport you’re applying for - they just want to be able to check that you really were born when and where you claim. I grew up in a largish town of c.100,000 people, which was served by a hospital in a teeny tiny village, population c.600. The hospital was huge and served several nearby towns. This is the town that appears on my birth cert and my passport and the same goes for hundreds of thousands of people living nearby despite so few people really living there. This looks even weirder now that the hospital’s closed. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-place-of-birth-on-a-passport/576297/10 "2011-03-28T21:08:02Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > Yup, the one on your birth certificate. They don’t actually care where you grew up, esp. if it’s within the the country whose passport you’re applying for - they just want to be able to check that you really were born when and where you claim. But it could make a difference if the hospital is in a different country. For example, if a Canadian woman went into labour and gave birth while visiting the United States, the child’s birthplace would be the U.S. and the child would be a U.S. citizen. (It would also be a Canadian citizen if either the mother or the father were Canadian.) ---
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-place-of-birth-on-a-passport/576297/11 "2011-03-28T21:20:35Z")
Not that it means all that much, but I thought I’d point out that if you’re American, the passport itself will only have the state name under “Place of Birth.” So, it’s not like you’ll have to worry about saying the wrong place if someone asks. Just a small, probably worthless, piece of info. ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-place-of-birth-on-a-passport/576297/12 "2011-03-28T21:32:44Z")
My place of borth in my passport just says London, which is obviously a pretty big place. I think my Birth certificate says the borough and district in London where the hospital that I was born was located not the borough and district where my family lived and I spent the first few years of my life. ---
**Author:** ![robcaro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@robcaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robcaro)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-place-of-birth-on-a-passport/576297/13 "2011-03-28T21:34:31Z")
Just list the name of the town/city, state shown on the birth certificate. My passport shows only the state and country. “South Dakota, USA.” ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-place-of-birth-on-a-passport/576297/14 "2011-03-28T21:42:41Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > But it could make a difference if the hospital is in a different country. For example, if a Canadian woman went into labour and gave birth while visiting the United States, the child’s birthplace would be the U.S. and the child would be a U.S. citizen. (It would also be a Canadian citizen if either the mother or the father were Canadian.) Yes, definitely - the place of registration is important to the govt. The govt still doesn’t care where you actually grew up. If you were registered in Oklahoma City but spent your entire childhood in Los Angeles, the govt doesn’t care about Los Angeles - and I mean any govt, not just the US; if you’re entitled to a British passport by, say, marriage, they will also only want to know about Oklahoma. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-place-of-birth-on-a-passport/576297/15 "2011-03-28T21:53:31Z")
So what happens if you’re born at sea? What gets put into your identification documents then? Just the words “at sea”? The name of the body of water? The latitude and longitude coordinates? ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-place-of-birth-on-a-passport/576297/16 "2011-03-28T21:54:23Z")
Yes, it’s town Y, and that’s not too unusual if your parents lived somewhere too small to support a hospital. I’ve never lived in the city I was born in, though I lived in both of its neighbors. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-place-of-birth-on-a-passport/576297/17 "2011-03-28T22:29:06Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > this is a serious problem for Madrid’s medical system, for example). While factually accurate if you like your nits well-picked, it didn’t reflect the actual amounts of babies seen around any of those places. Why is this a problem? Does the government allocate resources based on the number of births rather than on the current population? Just wondering. ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-place-of-birth-on-a-passport/576297/18 "2011-03-28T22:38:19Z")
> [@Keeve](#): > > Why is this a problem? Does the government allocate resources based on the number of births rather than on the current population? Just wondering. I can see how this can screw up population forecasts - if you project a town’s population growth rate as (births - deaths + population influx - population outflux), you’ll mistakenly forecast a population decline for a town without a maternity hospital, a population growth for a town with one. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-place-of-birth-on-a-passport/576297/19 "2011-03-28T22:58:39Z")
> [@Mops](#): > > I can see how this can screw up population forecasts - if you project a town’s population growth rate as (births - deaths + population influx - population outflux), you’ll mistakenly forecast a population decline for a town without a maternity hospital, a population growth for a town with one. Hence things like the census. Otherwise the tiny village where my hospital was located would have thousands of school places despite having only a few hundred residents. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2011, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-place-of-birth-on-a-passport/576297/20 "2011-03-29T00:03:03Z")
For place of birth, my US passport just says “California, USA.” My Canadian one is both more and less specific: “San Diego, USA” (there’s also a San Diego in Texas). My birth certificate lists the hospital’s address as “place of birth,” but there’s also a line for “residence of mother,” and I bet I could have used either town. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-meant-by-place-of-birth-on-a-passport/576297.md?page=2)