Data & method
Random Life is a story generator held to real numbers. Here is exactly how a life is drawn.
1. Where you are born
We list 88 countries that together account for about 93% of the world's 132 million births a year; the remaining ~140 smaller countries are grouped as “elsewhere”. Each life draws one birth from this pool, so a country's chance is simply its share of births. That is why India (about 1 in 6) and Nigeria (about 1 in 17) come up far more often than France (1 in 194).
2. What happens next
Every moment — surviving childhood, finishing school, the first job, marriage age, children, moving to a city or abroad and the age you die — is rolled from rates for that country's income group and region, nudged by the country's own life expectancy and urban share. Two moments ask you to choose; your choice changes the story but not the odds you were born with.
3. The ending card
The “1 in N” on your card is how many random lives it takes, on average, to get one like yours (same country, same broad path). It is rounded and simplified on purpose — the point is the shape of the world, not the decimals.
Sources
| What | Source |
|---|---|
| Where you are born | UN World Population Prospects 2024 — annual births by country |
| Life expectancy | UN WPP 2024 / WHO Global Health Observatory |
| Child survival | UN IGME under-five mortality |
| School | UNESCO UIS completion rates |
| Work | ILO ILOSTAT employment by sector |
| Income group | World Bank country classification |
| Japan (prefectures) | 2020 Census of Japan, Statistics Bureau |
Limits
Lives are generated from published averages (UN World Population Prospects 2024, World Bank, WHO, UNESCO, ILO). Odds are rounded and simplified; a simulated life is a story, not a prediction about any real person.