J.K. Rowling was born in Yate, Gloucestershire, England.
She was born Joanne Rowling on 31 July 1965 at Yate General Hospital. Yate is a town near Bristol, and the area was then part of the county of Gloucestershire. Her parents, Peter Rowling and Anne Rowling, lived nearby at the time.
Rowling’s birthplace is sometimes confused with nearby Bristol because Bristol became an important part of her early life. She grew up in the Gloucestershire village of Tutshill and later attended school in nearby Chepstow, Wales. Yate, however, is the specific birthplace recorded in biographies.
The town is also associated with the early history of her family, while Rowling’s childhood home and school years are linked mainly with Tutshill and Chepstow. These nearby places are distinct from one another geographically, so Yate is the precise answer to the birthplace question.