Personal details on a CV: what to include and what to leave off

Name, contact details and location are universal. Date of birth, nationality and marital status depend on the country, and in the US and UK they usually stay off.

The header of your CV has one job: let the employer contact you. Everything beyond that is either useful context (your location, a portfolio link) or information the reader may not want to see. What counts as “too personal” depends on the country.

What every CV needs

These belong on a CV everywhere:

• Full name, as you want to be addressed. You do not need middle names.
• Phone number with the country code if you are applying abroad (for example +44 7700 900123).
• Email address that looks professional. firstname.lastname@example.com is ideal; an old nickname address is not.
• Location: city and country, or city and state/county. A full street address is rarely necessary today and you may prefer not to publish it.
• One or two links, if they help: LinkedIn, a portfolio, GitHub for developers. Only include links you have checked recently.

The builder warns you if the email is missing, since that is the one detail nearly every employer relies on.

What to leave off in the US and UK

For US résumés and UK CVs, recruiters usually expect you to leave off:

The laws behind the convention

In the US, federal law prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex and national origin (Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964), age for people aged 40 and over (the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, ADEA) and disability (the Americans with Disabilities Act, ADA). These laws are enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Many states add further protected categories.

In the UK, the Equality Act 2010 lists nine protected characteristics: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. See gov.uk on discrimination.

None of these laws forbids you from putting a date of birth on your CV. They restrict how employers may use such information. Recruiters prefer not to receive it, because holding it invites the question of whether it influenced the decision. Leaving it off makes the reader’s life easier and keeps the focus on your work.

Ireland’s Employment Equality Acts, Canada’s federal and provincial human rights laws, and Australian federal anti-discrimination laws produce similar conventions in those countries.

Work authorisation: the one exception worth stating

If you are applying from abroad, or your name or education history might make the employer wonder whether you need sponsorship, one plain line can save a rejection:

Before: Nationality: Brazilian. Date of birth: 14/03/1994.

After: Right to work in the UK: indefinite leave to remain. No sponsorship required.

Or for the US:

After: Authorized to work in the US (permanent resident). No sponsorship required.

Only include this if it is accurate and helps. In the UK, employers are required to check right to work before employment starts, so you will prove it later anyway; stating it upfront just answers the question early. In the US, “authorized” with a z is the usual spelling.

What to include in Germany, Austria and Switzerland

Traditional German-language CVs (Lebenslauf) include more personal information: date and sometimes place of birth, nationality, and in older styles marital status. Since Germany’s General Equal Treatment Act (AGG) came into force in 2006, most of this has become optional, and many applicants now leave out marital status and place of birth. Date of birth and nationality are still commonly included, and nationality can be genuinely useful when a work permit is relevant.

A typical modern German header:

• Name, address (often city only now), phone, email
• Geburtsdatum (date of birth): optional
• Staatsangehörigkeit (nationality): optional, useful if relevant to work permits
• Photo: optional, still common

The continental template has an optional photo and a free-text personal details line for these.

Elsewhere

• France, Spain, Italy, Belgium: date of birth or age and nationality are still seen on some CVs, but increasingly left off. Follow local job ads.
• Netherlands and the Nordics: generally minimal personal details, similar to the UK.
• India: some CVs still include date of birth, gender, marital status and languages known, and some employers expect them. Check what is usual in your sector; private multinationals tend to follow international norms.
• Middle East and parts of Asia: nationality, visa status and date of birth are often expected, and some application forms ask for them directly.

Data protection and your CV

In the UK and EU, the UK GDPR and EU GDPR govern how employers handle the personal data in your application. One of the principles is data minimisation: collecting only what is needed. A CV that holds only what the employer needs is easier for them to handle properly and means less of your data sits in other people’s inboxes and systems.

The same thinking applies to where you write your CV. CV Once keeps everything in your browser’s local storage; nothing is sent to a server. Even so, avoid putting identifiers such as passport or Social Security numbers into any CV, because the finished document will be emailed and uploaded.

A good header, start to finish

Priya Nair Manchester, UK · +44 7700 900456 · priya.nair@example.com · linkedin.com/in/priyanair-example

That is all most employers need. If your region is set to the US or UK, the builder flags date of birth and marital status if they appear, so you can decide whether to keep them.

Next: photos on a CV and European CV conventions.