If you were born in the United States
In 2023, about 1 in 36 babies on Earth was born in the United States: 3,657,476 births in the year, about 7.0 every minute (UN World Population Prospects 2024).
A baby born in the United States today can expect to live 79.3 years, which ranks 45 of 194 countries and regions.
The numbers
| Here | World | |
|---|---|---|
| Babies born here | 1 in 36 | — |
| Life expectancy at birth | 79.3 | 70.2 |
| Women / men | 81.8 / 76.9 | — |
| Children who die before 5 | 0.6% | 3.7% |
| Children per woman | 1.62 | 2.87 |
| Live in cities | 80% | 51% |
| Income per person (PPP $) | $86,170 | $17,038 |
| Income inequality (Gini) | 41.8 | 34.6 |
| Finish primary school | 96% | 86% |
| Finish middle school | 100% | 72% |
| Enrol in university | 79% | 35% |
| Women’s age at first marriage | 27.5 | 22.7 |
| Men’s age at first marriage | 29.2 | 27.0 |
| Use the internet | 95% | 60% |
| Health costs paid out of pocket | 11% | 41% |
2,000 lives born here
We ran the 1in8b life engine 2,000 times with every baby born in the United States, using the same data as the game. Of those lives:
- 100%reached age 5
- 99%reached 18
- 85%reached 65
- 60%reached 80
- 82median age at death
- 95%finished primary school
- 95%finished high school
- 61%graduated from university
- 79%of adults ever married
- 1.7children on average
- 1.6%lost a child under 18
- 1.3%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 36 chance it is the United States.
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.