If you were born in China
In 2023, about 1 in 15 babies on Earth was born in China: 8,899,881 births in the year, about 17 every minute (UN World Population Prospects 2024).
A baby born in China today can expect to live 78.0 years, which ranks 54 of 194 countries and regions.
The numbers
| Here | World | United States | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Babies born here | 1 in 15 | — | 1 in 36 |
| Life expectancy at birth | 78.0 | 70.2 | 79.3 |
| Women / men | 80.9 / 75.2 | — | 81.8 / 76.9 |
| Children who die before 5 | 0.7% | 3.7% | 0.6% |
| Children per woman | 1.00 | 2.87 | 1.62 |
| Live in cities | 66% | 51% | 80% |
| Income per person (PPP $) | $27,140 | $17,038 | $86,170 |
| Income inequality (Gini) | 36.0 | 34.6 | 41.8 |
| Finish primary school | 100%* | 86% | 96% |
| Finish middle school | 96%* | 72% | 100% |
| Enrol in university | 77% | 35% | 79% |
| Women’s age at first marriage | 25.4 | 22.7 | 27.5 |
| Men’s age at first marriage | 27.1 | 27.0 | 29.2 |
| Use the internet | 92% | 60% | 95% |
| Health costs paid out of pocket | 32% | 41% | 11% |
* estimated from similar countries
2,000 lives born here
We ran the 1in8b life engine 2,000 times with every baby born in China, using the same data as the game. Of those lives:
- 100%reached age 5
- 99%reached 18
- 85%reached 65
- 52%reached 80
- 80median age at death
- 99%finished primary school
- 95%finished high school
- 59%graduated from university
- 90%of adults ever married
- 1.1children on average
- 1.3%lost a child under 18
- 20%of 30-year-olds at work were farming
Simulated lives follow the national averages. Where you are born in a country, and to whom, changes them a great deal.
You don’t get to choose
In 1in8b you are born where the world’s babies are actually born. There is a 1 in 15 chance it is China.
Be born at randomSources: UN World Population Prospects 2024 (births, life tables, fertility); World Bank and ILO (income, schooling, work, marriage, health). Latest year available for each figure.