---
title: "Splitting Person nationality and citizenship"
url: "https://www.opensanctions.org/changelog/1/"
id: "1"
date_created: "2024-10-01T10:29:06.240Z"
date_effective: "2024-11-01"
breaking: false
categories: ["Data model"]
---

# Splitting Person nationality and citizenship

The `followthemoney` data model currently stores the citizenship of individuals in the `nationality` property. After being advised the the two concepts are not identical in some jurisdictions, we've now also introduced a `citizenship` property. From the effective date we will begin moving country affiliations for individuals in the `citizenship` property if that nomenclature is used in the data source (e.g. the UK sanctions list).

Data consumers should **check both properties in the future**. To get a complete picture of the countries linked to an individual you may also want to check the `birthCountry` and `country` field. The latter serves as a catch-all field for affiliations that may not involve citizenship or holding a passport - simple residence might be enough.

See: [Person schema](/reference/#schema.Person).