1 in 8 Billion
Right now, about four babies are born every second. You become one of them and live that one life all the way to its end. Where you are born, and to whom, you don’t get to choose. Just as you didn’t.
Lives kept in the memorial
If you were a baby born right now
See the statistics for all 141 countriesShared lives
People share the lives they lived here and what they felt. No names, no contact details. Only the lives remain.
Heavy moments such as child death, child marriage, conflict and illness happen here as often as the real statistics say.
Memorials
Lives that someone lived to the end and wanted to keep. Anyone can stop by, light a candle and leave a word.
Past lives
For your 10 most recent lives, press 'See again' to reopen the death record and the share card.
Your lives are kept in this browser only.
A deleted life cannot be brought back. A life placed in a memorial stays in the memorial.
People in this simulation
Where they live now
Born in the same second
In the same second you are born, other babies are born all over the world. Four of them live out their lives by the same statistics, shown alongside yours. No one chose where to be born.
A pause
At 5, 15, 30, 50 and 70, time stops and asks you one question. Think about this person’s life and your own together, and leave a line if you like. At the end, you can say a few words to this person.
What comes from real data
For 141 countries: births, life expectancy by sex, infant and under-5 mortality, GDP per person (PPP), income inequality, years of schooling, university enrollment, employment in agriculture, fertility rate, maternal mortality, HIV, homicide rate, smoking rate, out-of-pocket health costs, child marriage rate and life satisfaction. The age at death comes from each country’s life tables by sex, and causes of death follow WHO and GBD patterns by region and age.
If making decisions feels like too much, start a life and turn on 'Auto mode' in the bar at the top (the ⋯ menu on phones) to simply watch. You pick a focus for each year and make choices when decisions come up about school, work, love, moving abroad or medical care. Choices change a life, but it is hard to fully escape the statistics of the place you were born. Today’s world is calculated with today’s statistics, a past world with that year’s, and the coming world with UN and other projections. Income comes from the country’s income distribution (based on the Gini index), and amounts are shown in purchasing-power (PPP) dollars and in US terms, as they would feel at US prices. Suicide also happens from the teenage years on, as often as the real statistics say, without showing how or why.
Death, illness, war, poverty, drinking and gambling, violence at home and suicide happen here as often as the real statistics say, and a past world tells of real history such as wars and mass killings. It is made for ages 15 and up.
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Status0–100
What do these mean?
- Health Affects the risk of dying and whether you can keep working. Exercise, checkups and looking after yourself raise it; age lowers it.
- Happiness How satisfied you are with life. Income, family and friends, health and debt all affect it.
- Knowledge Affects entrance exams, job offers and your starting pay. Your family's means and your country's schools matter more, and above about 70 more of it makes little difference.
- Relationships Your bonds with family and friends. They affect marriage and its crises, talks with your children, the chance of being bullied at school, and loneliness in old age.
Higher numbers raise the odds; they never decide the outcome. As in real life, luck and circumstances play their part too.