If you were born in South Korea
In 2023, about 1 in 559 babies on Earth was born in South Korea: 236,394 births in the year, about 0.4 every minute (UN World Population Prospects 2024).
A baby born in South Korea today can expect to live 84.3 years, which ranks 3 of 194 countries and regions.
The numbers
| Here | World | United States | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Babies born here | 1 in 559 | — | 1 in 36 |
| Life expectancy at birth | 84.3 | 70.2 | 79.3 |
| Women / men | 87.2 / 81.2 | — | 81.8 / 76.9 |
| Children who die before 5 | 0.3% | 3.7% | 0.6% |
| Children per woman | 0.72 | 2.87 | 1.62 |
| Live in cities | 81% | 51% | 80% |
| Income per person (PPP $) | $61,051 | $17,038 | $86,170 |
| Income inequality (Gini) | 32.9 | 34.6 | 41.8 |
| Finish primary school | 100% | 86% | 96% |
| Finish middle school | 97% | 72% | 100% |
| Enrol in university | 100% | 35% | 79% |
| Women’s age at first marriage | 31.5 | 22.7 | 27.5 |
| Men’s age at first marriage | 33.9 | 27.0 | 29.2 |
| Use the internet | 98% | 60% | 95% |
| Health costs paid out of pocket | 34% | 41% | 11% |
2,000 lives born here
We ran the 1in8b life engine 2,000 times with every baby born in South Korea, using the same data as the game. Of those lives:
- 100%reached age 5
- 100%reached 18
- 94%reached 65
- 72%reached 80
- 86median age at death
- 99%finished primary school
- 96%finished high school
- 84%graduated from university
- 82%of adults ever married
- 0.8children on average
- 0.3%lost a child under 18
- 4.9%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 559 chance it is South Korea.
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.