J.K. Rowling’s birthplace was Yate, a town in Gloucestershire, England.
Rowling was born there on 31 July 1965 at Cottage Hospital. Yate lies northeast of Bristol and is part of the South Gloucestershire area. Although her birthplace is sometimes loosely described as Bristol because of the city’s proximity, the specific town recorded in biographies is Yate.
Her family later moved to Winterbourne, a village close to Yate, where Rowling spent much of her early childhood. She attended Wyedean School and College in Sedbury after the family moved to Tutshill. These places in south-west England are frequently mentioned in accounts of her early life.
The setting of Rowling’s childhood is not the same as the setting of the Harry Potter novels. Hogwarts is fictional, while Yate and nearby communities are real locations. Rowling’s later career took her to Exeter, Paris, Portugal, and Edinburgh, but her recorded birthplace remains Yate.