If you were born right now
The 8 most likely countries, based on annual births.
0 babies have been born worldwide since you opened this page
If you were born again,
where would you land?
132 million babies arrive every year. Roll the dice and be one of them. Luck picks your country and family, and your choices steer the life. You live a whole life, year by year, in about an hour.
In Life of the Day, everyone is born as the same person today. Compare your result with your friends.
โณ You have an unfinished life
How many people were alive when you were born?
Enter your birth date to see how many babies were born that same day and how much the world has changed since.
Send this game to your mates
Everyone is born in a different country. Who gets the longer life, who lands somewhere easier? Compare your results together.
Shared lives
People share the lives they lived here, along with their last words. No names, no contact details. Only the lives remain.
๐ก Let's improve the simulation together
Missing something in the game? A new event, a feature, or a wrong figure. Write it down and vote on other people's ideas. The ones with the most votes get built first.
๐ Your past lives
The last 8 lives are kept in this browser, and a new one replaces the oldest. You can pin up to 4 lives; pinned ones are never deleted.
Back up and move
Your lives, passport and settings are saved in a single file. Use it to move them to another phone or browser.
๐ Your passport
Every time you are born in a new country, you earn a stamp. Collect them all.
Badge collection
Every life can unlock a new badge. The faded ones are still waiting for you.
1
Roll the dice
One of 70 countries is drawn, weighted by real annual births. So are your family, your city and your siblings.
2
Life unfolds
School, work, love, moving away, illness. Events follow the data of the country you were born in. At the big moments, you decide.
3
Share and challenge
Share the story image or send the link. Your friend is born as the same person, and you see who lives better.
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1 in 8 Billion Game?
8mlia is a free life simulation game where you are reborn at random as one of the 8 billion people on Earth. Your country, your family's income and whether you grow up in a city or the countryside are drawn from real birth statistics. Then life runs year by year, and you make the call at the big moments.
How do you play?
Roll the dice, read your birth record and start living. Every year brings events, and at moments like school, work, love or moving abroad you pick one of two or three choices. When the life ends you get your score, rank, badges and a life map. You can share the result or challenge a friend to the same start.
How is the country I am born in decided?
Each country's chance is proportional to its number of births per year. About 132 million babies are born worldwide every year, and roughly one in six of them in India. So you are far more likely to be born in India, Nigeria or Pakistan than in Norway or Switzerland. If you prefer, you can switch the draw to population share in the settings.
the United Kingdom: what are my odds of being born there?
A baby born today has roughly a 1 in 200 chance of being born in the United Kingdom. You can compare every other country's odds in one table on the countries page.
Is the game free, and do I need an account?
The game is completely free and needs no sign-up. Your past lives, passport and settings are stored only in your own browser.
Is the data real?
Births, life expectancy, under-five mortality, income per person, urbanisation and fertility come from the UN World Population Prospects and World Bank data. Values are rounded approximations. The events and characters in the game are fiction.
How long does one life take?
You choose before you start: about 30 minutes, 1 hour or 1.5 hours. The length is set by the life expectancy of the country you are born in. You can pause during play or speed up to 100x. If you close the tab, the life picks up where it stopped.
Which languages can I play in?
The game is available in 25 languages including English. Change the language from the menu at the top right. In every language the currency is shown in that country's own money.
Can I install it on my phone like an app?
Yes. On Android or a computer, press the Install app button at the top right in Chrome or Edge. On iPhone, open the Share menu in Safari and choose Add to Home Screen.
How do the data and the model work?
The birth country is drawn with weights from the annual birth counts in the UN World Population Prospects 2024. The 70 countries on the list cover most of the world's births. The chance of dying in infancy and childhood comes from each country's under-5 mortality rate, and adult mortality from a Gompertz curve calibrated to the country's life expectancy. Schooling, university, retirement and opportunities depend on the country's income per person and your family's income bracket.
This is a game. It is not a record of a real person or a prediction. The event texts are fiction, and the statistical background uses approximate, rounded values. Sources: UN WPP 2024, World Bank World Development Indicators.
Content note: the game includes illness, poverty, conflict and death. Suitable for ages 13 and up.