If you were born in DR Congo
In 2023, about 1 in 30 babies on Earth was born in DR Congo: 4,369,683 births in the year, about 8.3 every minute (UN World Population Prospects 2024).
A baby born in DR Congo today can expect to live 61.9 years, which ranks 181 of 194 countries and regions.
The numbers
| Here | World | United States | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Babies born here | 1 in 30 | — | 1 in 36 |
| Life expectancy at birth | 61.9 | 70.2 | 79.3 |
| Women / men | 64.0 / 59.8 | — | 81.8 / 76.9 |
| Children who die before 5 | 7.3% | 3.7% | 0.6% |
| Children per woman | 6.05 | 2.87 | 1.62 |
| Live in cities | 45% | 51% | 80% |
| Income per person (PPP $) | $1,823 | $17,038 | $86,170 |
| Income inequality (Gini) | 44.7 | 34.6 | 41.8 |
| Finish primary school | 76% | 86% | 96% |
| Finish middle school | 56% | 72% | 100% |
| Enrol in university | 6.4% | 35% | 79% |
| Women’s age at first marriage | 20.9 | 22.7 | 27.5 |
| Men’s age at first marriage | 25.5 | 27.0 | 29.2 |
| Use the internet | 20% | 60% | 95% |
| Health costs paid out of pocket | 38% | 41% | 11% |
2,000 lives born here
We ran the 1in8b life engine 2,000 times with every baby born in DR Congo, using the same data as the game. Of those lives:
- 93%reached age 5
- 91%reached 18
- 61%reached 65
- 25%reached 80
- 70median age at death
- 71%finished primary school
- 31%finished high school
- 4.3%graduated from university
- 93%of adults ever married
- 4.9children on average
- 38%lost a child under 18
- 56%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 30 chance it is DR Congo.
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.