J.K. Rowling was born in Yate, Gloucestershire, England, on 31 July 1965.
Yate is a town northeast of Bristol. Rowling’s parents, Peter Rowling and Anne Rowling, were living in the area when she was born. The family later moved to Winterbourne, another Gloucestershire village near Bristol, where Rowling spent part of her childhood.
Rowling’s birthplace is sometimes confused with nearby Bristol because Bristol is the larger and better-known city in the region. Yate, however, is the specific town identified in biographical accounts of her birth. Her early surroundings in Gloucestershire later became part of the background of her childhood, although the Harry Potter books are not direct fictionalized accounts of the area.
Rowling attended Wyedean School and College in Sedbury, Gloucestershire, before studying French and Classics at the University of Exeter. Her birthplace and early education therefore both connect her biography strongly with southwest England.