Data and method

How the game draws a birth

The draw first picks a country among the game’s 41, with a probability proportional to its population (2025). Together these countries hold about 82% of the world’s population: the draw does not represent all of humanity.

It then picks a representative place in the country (big city, mid-size city or village), a family, a name and a standard of living. The standard of living follows a log-normal distribution of per-person household income, calibrated on GDP per capita at purchasing power parity and on the poverty rates observed in each country.

Names, jobs and families are design choices: real and common, but the sample is arbitrary.

Three data statuses

Observed: Values published by the World Bank (population, life expectancy, urbanization, fertility, GDP per capita at purchasing power parity, inequality, schooling), with their year. They are not modified.
Approximation: Calculations from observed data using a simplified model: the spread of living standards, the average number of siblings, the coordinates of places.
Game rule: Documented design choices: city weights, wealth thresholds, names, jobs, events.

Sources

Source	Use in the game	License
World Bank, World Development Indicators	Population, life expectancy, urbanization, fertility, GDP per capita (PPP), inequality, schooling	CC BY 4.0
UN Population Division (World Population Prospects)	Origin of several demographic indicators reused by the World Bank	See the source
Natural Earth	Map of the Earth and city lights on the globe	Public domain
Wikipedia	Coordinates of the representative birthplaces	CC BY-SA 4.0

Limits

Indicators are national averages: they say nothing about any individual.
Definitions (for example “urban”) vary between countries and are not harmonized.
The year of the values differs by country and indicator: the latest available value is used.
The game’s 41 countries do not cover all of humanity; a country’s absence is not a judgment.
Recent values are UN estimates or projections reused by the World Bank.

The game’s countries and their indicators

Population in millions, life expectancy at birth (years) and urban share of the population (%), as the game reads them when the site is built.

The game’s countries and their indicators
ISO code	Country	Population (M)	Life expectancy	Urban (%)
IN	India	1,463.9	72.2	36
CN	China	1,406.6	78.0	66
US	United States	341.8	78.9	80
ID	Indonesia	285.7	71.3	59
PK	Pakistan	255.2	67.8	40
NG	Nigeria	237.5	54.6	64
BR	Brazil	212.8	76.0	88
BD	Bangladesh	175.7	74.9	33
RU	Russia	143.5	73.4	75
ET	Ethiopia	135.5	67.6	24
MX	Mexico	131.9	75.3	80
JP	Japan	123.4	84.0	92
EG	Egypt	118.4	71.8	43
PH	Philippines	116.8	69.9	56
CD	DR Congo	112.8	62.1	45
VN	Vietnam	101.6	74.7	39
IR	Iran	92.4	77.9	77
TR	Turkey	85.9	77.4	89
DE	Germany	83.5	80.8	82
TH	Thailand	71.6	76.6	63
TZ	Tanzania	70.5	67.2	37
GB	United Kingdom	69.5	81.4	83
FR	France	68.7	83.0	79
ZA	South Africa	64.7	66.3	64
IT	Italy	58.9	84.0	70
KE	Kenya	57.5	63.8	32
CO	Colombia	53.4	77.9	79
KR	South Korea	51.7	83.6	81
UG	Uganda	51.4	68.5	32
ES	Spain	49.4	83.9	81
DZ	Algeria	47.4	76.5	76
IQ	Iraq	47.0	72.4	70
AR	Argentina	45.9	77.5	92
CA	Canada	41.7	82.1	83
MA	Morocco	38.4	75.5	63
UZ	Uzbekistan	37.1	72.5	51
PL	Poland	36.4	78.4	60
GH	Ghana	35.1	65.7	59
PE	Peru	34.6	77.9	86
NP	Nepal	29.6	70.6	67
AU	Australia	27.6	83.1	88

Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators (CC BY 4.0), latest available value per country. Country names are shown when they are translated into the page’s language.

Attribution

Data: World Bank, World Development Indicators, CC BY 4.0 license. The data was simplified and reformatted for the game; this site does not imply any endorsement by the World Bank. Map of the Earth: Natural Earth, public domain.