Thirty-three countries currently grant unconditional birthright citizenship, meaning any child born on their soil is automatically a citizen regardless of the parents’ nationality or immigration status.1Pew Research Center. U.S.-Style Birthright Citizenship Is Uncommon Around the World That’s a small share of the roughly 200 sovereign states worldwide, and the list of countries with birthright citizenship is heavily concentrated in one part of the world: the Americas account for 28 of the 33. The count is also under pressure. Several countries have rolled back automatic citizenship over the past few decades, and a pending U.S. Supreme Court decision could remove the United States from the list.
The Full List of Countries With Unconditional Birthright Citizenship
Based on a 2026 Pew Research Center analysis, these 33 countries grant citizenship automatically to anyone born on their territory, with no requirement that a parent be a citizen, resident, or lawful visitor:1Pew Research Center. U.S.-Style Birthright Citizenship Is Uncommon Around the World
- North America: Canada, Mexico, United States
- Central America: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama
- Caribbean: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago
- South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela
- Africa: Benin, Chad, Lesotho, Mozambique
- Asia: Pakistan
- Oceania: Tuvalu
No country in Europe offers unconditional birthright citizenship. Tuvalu is the only example in Oceania, and Pakistan is the only one in Asia.1Pew Research Center. U.S.-Style Birthright Citizenship Is Uncommon Around the World
A few countries that sometimes appear on similar lists were excluded from Pew’s count. Tanzania’s citizenship statute reads as though it grants birthright citizenship, but in practice the government requires at least one parent to be a citizen. Bangladesh has a similar gap between its written law and how the rule is enforced.1Pew Research Center. U.S.-Style Birthright Citizenship Is Uncommon Around the World
Why the Americas Dominate the List
The Western Hemisphere’s embrace of birthright citizenship traces back to how these countries were built. Nations across North, Central, and South America developed as immigrant-receiving societies, and automatic citizenship for anyone born on the territory worked as a tool for pulling settlers, enslaved people and their descendants, and indigenous populations into a single national identity. Lineage-based citizenship, which passes nationality through bloodlines, made less practical sense in places whose whole project was to build a new nation out of diverse origins.
In the United States, the rule is written into the Constitution. The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, declares that all persons born in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction are citizens.2Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Fourteenth Amendment It was adopted to overturn the Dred Scott decision and guarantee citizenship to formerly enslaved people. In 1898, the Supreme Court confirmed in United States v. Wong Kim Ark that the amendment covers children born on U.S. soil to non-citizen parents, applying to “children born within the territory of the United States of all other persons, of whatever race or color, domiciled within the United States.”3Cornell Law Institute. United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649
Canada’s rule is similarly broad. The Citizenship Act grants nationality to anyone born on Canadian soil after February 14, 1977, with exceptions only for children of foreign diplomats and certain international organization employees.4Government of Canada. Citizenship Act – Section 3 Even that diplomat exception is narrow. It applies only when neither parent was a Canadian citizen or permanent resident at the time of the birth.5Global Affairs Canada. Births in Canada of Children of Foreign Representatives
The Five Outliers Outside the Americas
The five countries outside the Western Hemisphere that grant unconditional birthright citizenship stand apart from their regional neighbors. Pakistan is the most prominent case in Asia. Under the Pakistan Citizenship Act of 1951, anyone born in the country after the act took effect is a citizen, with exceptions only for children of enemy aliens during wartime and children of foreign diplomats.6Global Citizenship Observatory. Pakistan Citizenship Act 1951
In Africa, Benin, Chad, Lesotho, and Mozambique keep unconditional birthright citizenship even though their neighbors rely on lineage-based systems. Tuvalu, a Pacific island nation with fewer than 12,000 people, is the only country in Oceania or the broader Asia-Pacific with this policy. These five don’t share a single origin story. Some, like Pakistan, established the rule at independence as part of nation-building. Others reflect colonial-era legal frameworks that were never revised.
Countries That Have Ended Birthright Citizenship
The global direction has been away from unconditional birthright citizenship, not toward it. Several countries that once granted automatic citizenship to anyone born on their territory have added parental requirements.
The United Kingdom was among the first to shift. Before 1983, anyone born in the UK was automatically British. The British Nationality Act 1981, effective January 1, 1983, changed that. A child born in the UK now becomes a citizen only if at least one parent is a British citizen or has “settled status,” meaning permanent residence rights.7GOV.UK. Automatic Acquisition
Australia followed in 1986. The Australian Citizenship Amendment Act replaced automatic birthright citizenship with a requirement that at least one parent be an Australian citizen or permanent resident at the time of the child’s birth. A safety net remains: a child born in Australia who lives there for the first ten years of life becomes a citizen regardless of parental status.8Australasian Legal Information Institute. Australian Citizenship Amendment Act 1986
India tightened its rules in stages. Birth in India alone was enough until 1987. A 1987 amendment required at least one parent to be an Indian citizen. The Citizenship Amendment Act of 2003, effective in 2004, went further: a child born in India now needs either both parents to be citizens, or one parent to be a citizen and the other to not be an undocumented immigrant.
Ireland held a public referendum in 2004 in which 79% of voters approved a constitutional amendment ending unconditional birthright citizenship. The new rule requires at least one parent to be a citizen, permanent resident, or legal temporary resident. The Dominican Republic went further in 2010, amending its constitution to exclude children of undocumented immigrants from birthright citizenship. A 2013 Supreme Court ruling applied that change retroactively to 1929, affecting tens of thousands of Dominican-born people of Haitian descent.
What Conditional Birthright Citizenship Means in Practice
Most countries that aren’t on the list of 33 don’t grant no birthright citizenship at all. Many use a conditional model that sits between the unconditional rule and pure lineage-based citizenship. A child born in the country can become a citizen, but only if the parents meet certain requirements.
In the UK, a child born on British soil to parents without settled status is not British. That child may need a visa to remain in the country of birth and could face removal if the parents’ immigration status lapses. Australia’s ten-year residency fallback softens the outcome, but a decade is a long time to live in your birth country without citizenship rights. The conditions almost always turn on the parents’ legal status rather than the child’s own ties to the country, so a child who grows up speaking the language, attending local schools, and knowing no other home can still fall short if the parents lacked the right paperwork at the moment of birth.
The Pending U.S. Case That Could Change the Count
The United States, the country most associated with birthright citizenship, is in the middle of a legal battle over whether to keep it. In January 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14160, “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” directing federal agencies to stop recognizing birthright citizenship for two categories of children born on U.S. soil:9The White House. Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship
- Children whose mother was unlawfully present in the United States and whose father was not a citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of birth.
- Children whose mother was lawfully but temporarily in the United States (on a tourist, student, or work visa, for example) and whose father was not a citizen or lawful permanent resident.
Multiple federal courts immediately blocked the order with nationwide injunctions. In June 2025, the Supreme Court narrowed those injunctions, holding that federal courts lack the authority to issue “universal injunctions” and that lower courts should tailor their orders to the specific plaintiffs. The Court also allowed executive agencies to begin developing public guidance on implementation.10Supreme Court of the United States. Trump v. CASA, Inc.
The underlying constitutional question reached the Supreme Court in Trump v. Barbara, argued on April 1, 2026. The core issue is whether the Fourteenth Amendment’s phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” allows the executive branch to exclude certain U.S.-born children from citizenship. A decision is expected by late June or early July 2026.11Congress.gov. Trump v. Barbara – Supreme Court Considers Birthright Citizenship If the Court sides with the administration, the United States would effectively move from unconditional to conditional birthright citizenship, and the global count of countries with the unconditional rule would drop from 33 to 32.