The registry identity gap
22 of 56 US sex offender registries do not publish a full date of birth in their search results. Date of birth is the primary way to tell two people with the same name apart — so in those jurisdictions, a member of the public who finds a name match cannot confirm whether it is the person they were checking.
What each registry publishes, and what it costs
A name alone rarely settles the question. What separates a useful answer from an ambiguous one is whether the registry also publishes an identifier precise enough to distinguish two people who share that name.
| What is published | Jurisdictions | What it means for a search |
|---|---|---|
| Full date of birth | 34 | A name match can be confirmed or excluded outright. |
| On the record page, not in results | 5 | Confirmable, but only after opening each candidate individually. |
| Partial | 2 | Confirmable for some registrants and not others. |
| Varies within the state | 1 | Depends which part of the state the record came from. |
| Birth year only | 7 | Narrows a common name to a cohort, not a person. |
| Age only | 7 | Shifts every birthday; two people a year apart can read as one. |
Ambiguity cuts both ways
A registry that publishes a name and an age, and nothing more precise, produces two errors rather than one. Someone checking a common name may conclude a stranger is a registrant because the age is close enough — and someone checking the registrant themselves may dismiss a true match because the age looks a year off. Neither error is visible to the person making it.
This is a policy choice, not a technical limit. Each state decides what its registry publishes, and neighbouring states with comparable statutes routinely land on different answers. The table below is that variation, jurisdiction by jurisdiction.
Every jurisdiction
| Jurisdiction | Date of birth published as |
|---|---|
| Alaska | Full date of birth |
| American Samoa | Full date of birth |
| Arkansas | Full date of birth |
| Colorado | Full date of birth |
| Connecticut | Full date of birth |
| Delaware | Full date of birth |
| District of Columbia | Full date of birth |
| Florida | Full date of birth |
| Guam | Full date of birth |
| Illinois | Full date of birth |
| Iowa | Full date of birth |
| Kentucky | Full date of birth |
| Louisiana | Full date of birth |
| Maine | Full date of birth |
| Michigan | Full date of birth |
| Mississippi | Full date of birth |
| Missouri | Full date of birth |
| Nebraska | Full date of birth |
| New Hampshire | Full date of birth |
| North Carolina | Full date of birth |
| Northern Mariana Islands | Full date of birth |
| Ohio | Full date of birth |
| Oklahoma | Full date of birth |
| Oregon | Full date of birth |
| Puerto Rico | Full date of birth |
| Rhode Island | Full date of birth |
| South Carolina | Full date of birth |
| South Dakota | Full date of birth |
| Tennessee | Full date of birth |
| Texas | Full date of birth |
| US Virgin Islands | Full date of birth |
| Utah | Full date of birth |
| Vermont | Full date of birth |
| West Virginia | Full date of birth |
| California | On the record page, not in results |
| Idaho | On the record page, not in results |
| New Jersey | On the record page, not in results |
| New York | On the record page, not in results |
| Wyoming | On the record page, not in results |
| Minnesota | Partial |
| Montana | Partial |
| Kansas | Varies within the state |
| Georgia | Birth year only |
| Hawaii | Birth year only |
| Massachusetts | Birth year only |
| Nevada | Birth year only |
| New Mexico | Birth year only |
| North Dakota | Birth year only |
| Pennsylvania | Birth year only |
| Alabama | Age only |
| Arizona | Age only |
| Indiana | Age only |
| Maryland | Age only |
| Virginia | Age only |
| Washington | Age only |
| Wisconsin | Age only |
How this was measured, and its limits
- The 56 US jurisdiction registries in our roster were each reviewed for the date-of-birth precision they publish in search output
- “On the record page, not in results” means the identifier exists but only after opening an individual record — confirmable, but not while scanning a result set
- Registries change what they publish without notice; this reflects the state of the review, not a permanent property of any jurisdiction
- This study covers what registries publish. It draws no conclusion about any individual, and makes no claim about the completeness of any registry’s underlying records
Free to cite with attribution to Offendersearch and a link to this page. More on how we treat published figures: our methodology · coverage · open data.