Sex

https://publicschema.org/vocab/sex

normative

The biological sex of a person as recorded in an official register or identity document, following ISO/IEC 5218.

CSV JSON-LD

Standard reference

ISO/IEC 5218:2022 (https://www.iso.org/standard/81682.html)

Codes for the representation of human sexes, per ISO/IEC 5218:2022 (which supersedes the withdrawn ISO/IEC 5218:2004). The 2022 revision retains the same four code points (0, 1, 2, 9) with the same semantics. Numeric codes mapped to readable identifiers. EBSI PID schemas extend ISO 5218 with additional codes: 3 (other), 4 (inter), 5 (diverse), 6 (open). PublicSchema follows the base ISO standard. Systems using those extension values should leave them unmapped here or use a local extension rather than collapsing them into ISO 5218 'not applicable'.

Aligned standards

Standard Equivalent Match
Core Person Human Sex close
EU Named Authority List for human sex, based on ISO/IEC 5218. The NAL carries 5 non-deprecated concepts (MALE, FEMALE, NKN, NAP, NST); PublicSchema has 4. NST (not stated) distinguishes disclosure refusal from unknown status and has no counterpart here.

Values

Code Label Standard code Definition
not_known Not known 0 Sex has not been recorded or is not known.
male Male 1 Male sex.
female Female 2 Female sex.
not_applicable Not applicable 9 Sex is not applicable in this context (e.g., legal entities).

System mappings

OpenSPP

System vocabulary: ISO 5218: Gender

System code System label sex value
0 Not known not_known
1 Male male
2 Female female
9 Not applicable not_applicable

DCI

System vocabulary: SexCategoryEnum

System code System label sex value
male Male male
female Female female
other Others no equivalent
unknown Unknown not_known

OpenCRVS

System vocabulary: Gender

System code System label sex value
male Male male
female Female female
other Other no equivalent
unknown Unknown not_known

FHIR R4

System vocabulary: AdministrativeGender

System code System label sex value
male Male male
female Female female
other Other no equivalent
unknown Unknown not_known

semic

System vocabulary: EU Human Sex NAL

System code System label sex value
MALE Male male
FEMALE Female female
NKN Not known not_known
NAP Not applicable not_applicable
NST Not stated no equivalent

Referenced by this vocabulary

See full reference catalogue