Вы можете использовать re.findall
:
import re
lists = [('1', 'no'), ('10', 'nan'), ('11', '["I\'m still a student and \xa0I am retraining."]'), ('12', 'nan'), ('14', 'no'), ('15', 'nan'), ('16', 'no'), ('17', 'nan'), ('18', '["I\'m still as student"]'), ('19 a', 'nan'), ('19 b', 'nan'), ('20 a', '["I\'m still a student member.\xa0"]'), ('69', 'nan'), ('7 a', '["Other"]'), ('7 b', 'nan'), ('72', 'nan'), ('8', 'nan'), ('9', 'yes')]
new_result = sorted(lists, key=lambda x:[int(re.findall('^\d+', x[0])[0]), x])
Выход:
[('1', 'no'),
('7 a', '["Other"]'),
('7 b', 'nan'),
('8', 'nan'),
('9', 'yes'),
('10', 'nan'),
('11', '["I\'m still a student and \xa0I am retraining."]'),
('12', 'nan'),
('14', 'no'),
('15', 'nan'),
('16', 'no'),
('17', 'nan'),
('18', '["I\'m still as student"]'),
('19 a', 'nan'),
('19 b', 'nan'),
('20 a', '["I\'m still a student member.\xa0"]'),
('69', 'nan'),
('72', 'nan')]