How your country is drawn sits under the world choice. Two buttons share the control. Babies born now is already pressed. The 8 billion alive now is the other. The pressed button decides the weights. Either way, life starts at age 0, and the country is drawn rather than chosen.
Babies born now
The country is picked by its number of births each year. Life starts at age 0.
The birth screen opens on this button. The odds panel is titled If you were a baby born right now. Under the title: UN World Population Prospects 2024, based on babies born in 2023. Each country shows that weight twice: a share of births, and odds written as 1 in N. On the birth certificate, that share of the babies born today are born in the drawn country, and the share card labels it Chance of being born here.
The 8 billion alive now
The country is picked by its population. Life starts at age 0.
Pressing this button retitles the panel If you were one of the 8 billion people alive now. Under the title, the same UN source covers people living in 2023. The share card labels the figure Share of world population. On the certificate, that share of the people alive today live in the drawn country, about 1 in N. Each country shows a rounded population, such as population about 1.4 billion, and still shows the birth odds. It does not show this second odds line.
Birth shares for Babies born now. India, China, Nigeria, Pakistan and Indonesia are the first five bars. The last bar is the other 136 birthplaces.
On the birth screen
Open the birth screen. The world you are born into is the group above the draw. Today is already pressed. The past, the future, and any world are the other three.
Under How your country is drawn, leave Babies born now pressed, or press The 8 billion alive now. The panel beside the controls redraws its bars from the button that is pressed.
Read the panel title and the UN World Population Prospects 2024 line under it. Births use the 2023 birth counts. Population uses the 2023 population counts. The bars are the nine heaviest countries under that rule, then one bar for the other countries.
Where you were actually born is a separate menu. Choosing a country there compares the life you live with the country you were born in, and the choice stays on this device. It does not set the birthplace of the drawn life.
Press Be born. The draw uses the weights of the button that is pressed. The new life is age 0 in the country that came up.
On the birth certificate, read the share. Births state the chance of being born there and the yearly number of births. Population states the share of people alive today, about 1 in N.
Where the two weights disagree
Birth share and birth odds are the figures for each country. Population share, and the about 1 in N beside it, are calculated from the 2023 population counts: the weights used when The 8 billion alive now is pressed. Rank 1 is the heaviest country under that rule.
The birth counts behind those shares sum to 131.4 million births in 2023. The population counts sum to 8.03 billion people living in 2023. That is the pair of totals the odds panel takes from UN World Population Prospects 2024.
India is rank 1 by births (17.68%, 1 in 6) and rank 1 by the 2023 population weights (17.92%, about 1 in 6). China is rank 2 by births (6.78%, 1 in 15) and rank 2 by the 2023 population weights (17.73%, about 1 in 6).
Birthplace
Birth share
Birth odds
Birth rank
Population share
Population odds
Population rank
India
17.68%
1 in 6
1
17.92%
about 1 in 6
1
China
6.78%
1 in 15
2
17.73%
about 1 in 6
2
Nigeria
5.72%
1 in 17
3
2.84%
about 1 in 35
6
Pakistan
5.24%
1 in 19
4
3.08%
about 1 in 32
5
Indonesia
3.41%
1 in 29
5
3.50%
about 1 in 29
4
DR Congo
3.33%
1 in 30
6
1.32%
about 1 in 76
15
Ethiopia
3.13%
1 in 32
7
1.60%
about 1 in 62
11
the United States
2.78%
1 in 36
8
4.28%
about 1 in 23
3
Bangladesh
2.66%
1 in 38
9
2.14%
about 1 in 47
8
Brazil
1.98%
1 in 50
10
2.63%
about 1 in 38
7
Egypt
1.83%
1 in 55
11
1.43%
about 1 in 70
14
Tanzania
1.79%
1 in 56
12
0.83%
about 1 in 120
22
Mexico
1.55%
1 in 64
13
1.62%
about 1 in 62
10
Russia
0.99%
1 in 101
22
1.81%
about 1 in 55
9
Japan
0.57%
1 in 175
39
1.55%
about 1 in 65
12
Ranks that move
Nigeria is rank 3 by births (5.72%, 1 in 17) and rank 6 by the 2023 population weights (2.84%, about 1 in 35).
The United States is rank 8 by births (2.78%, 1 in 36) and rank 3 by the 2023 population weights (4.28%, about 1 in 23).
DR Congo is rank 6 by births (3.33%, 1 in 30) and rank 15 by the 2023 population weights (1.32%, about 1 in 76).
Japan is rank 39 by births (0.57%, 1 in 175) and rank 12 by the 2023 population weights (1.55%, about 1 in 65).
South Korea is rank 81 by births (0.18%, 1 in 556) and rank 29 by the 2023 population weights (0.64%, about 1 in 155).
A past year uses the same switch
Choose the past and the two buttons are renamed Babies born that year and People alive that year. The panel title follows: If you were a baby born in that year, or If you were one of the people alive in that year. The weights are that year’s births, or the people alive that year, still from UN World Population Prospects 2024.
A past world can keep a chosen year, or leave the year to the draw. When the year is drawn, it is weighted the same way as the country. A high-birth year is likelier under Babies born that year. A high-population year is likelier under People alive that year. The hint under the world choice describes the birth case in one sentence: the year is drawn too, and the more babies were born in a year, the likelier it is.
The future keeps today’s weights and changes the title. Births read If you were born now and lived into the world to come. Population reads If you were one of the people alive now, living into the world to come. Any world draws the past, today, or the future. If the past comes up, the year of birth is drawn too.
What neither button changes
Life starts at age 0. The life that opens is a newborn in the drawn country.
The world choice still decides which statistical year the life is attached to. Today keeps today’s statistics through the end. The draw decides the country inside that world.
The optional home country, the length of the sitting, and the keepsake pass sit elsewhere on the same screen. The pass adds the House of Past Lives. It does not change the weights, and it does not pick a country.
