Act I
The World Stage
World Population
How many people shared the planet
people on Earth when you were born
3.2 billion more people have arrived since
The world crossed 6 billion around the time you were born. It will likely never reach 12.
1 in 58 people alive today was born in 1987.
World Leaders
Who was in charge
United States President
Ronald Reagan
President
UK Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher
Prime Minister
UN Secretary-General
Javier Pérez de Cuéllar
United Nations
World Events
Defining moments of 1987
Herald of Free Enterprise ferry capsizes off Belgium killing 193
Iran-Contra hearings begin in US Congress
Reagan delivers 'Tear down this wall' speech at Brandenburg Gate
Dow Jones hits all-time high of 2,722 before the fall
Black Monday - Dow Jones drops 22.6% in a single day, the largest one-day crash in history
Baby Names
Most popular names in 1987 (US)
Boys
Michael, Christopher, Matthew
Girls
Jessica, Ashley, Amanda
Atmosphere
CO₂ in the air you first breathed
CO₂ concentration (Keeling Curve)
+73.3 ppm since your birth
CO₂ has climbed 21% since 1987. It's one of the few numbers that only goes up.
Act II
What Things Cost
Average Annual Salary
What workers took home
$26.1k US median household incomeAdjusted for inflation, that's worth about $72k in today's dollars.
Today: $80kPurchasing Power
Are we actually better off today?
What $26k in 1987 is worth right now
10% less purchasing power than today's median
Wages have grown, but housing, healthcare, and education have grown faster. The math isn't in your favor.
The Birth Lottery
Same year. Different world.
life expectancy at birth in 1987
life expectancy at birth in 1987
A 32.6-year gap, decided entirely by where you happened to be born. Same year, different world.
Everyday Prices
What things cost
Housing
Homes vs. salaries - then and now
Median home cost 4.0x the average annual salary
Median home now costs 5.3x the average annual salary
Housing has gotten 1.3x harder to afford relative to income. Your parents weren't exaggerating about how cheap houses were.
Act III
What Was Playing
Billboard Year-End #1
Walk Like an Egyptian
The Bangles
Oscar Best Picture
Platoon
Directed by Oliver Stone
Grammy Album of the Year
Graceland
Paul Simon
TV Premieres
Shows born the same year as you
Sports
Champions of the year
World Series
Minnesota Twins
Baseball
F1 Champion
Nelson Piquet
Formula One
Super Bowl
New York Giants
39-20 vs Denver Broncos
NBA Champion
Los Angeles Lakers
Basketball
Screen & Page
What everyone was watching and reading
Most-Watched Show
The Cosby Show
Television
Fiction Bestseller
Misery
Stephen King
Box Office #1
Three Men and a Baby
Film
Act IV
The State of Technology
Technology Milestone
Where technology stood
GIF image format introduced by CompuServe
Notable Tech Releases
What launched that year
Macintosh II launched - first color Mac
HyperCard introduced by Apple
Perl programming language released by Larry Wall
GIF image format introduced by CompuServe
Social Media Timeline
How old were you when these launched?
The Universe
Worlds discovered beyond our solar system
No exoplanets confirmed yet
confirmed and counting
When you were born, humanity had no proof that planets existed outside our solar system. Now we know they're everywhere.
Act V
Your Place in Time
🇺🇸 United States
Your country the year you arrived
Population
244M
people in United States
GDP per Capita
$20k
per person per year
Your Birth Cohort
141M
babies born worldwide that year
Your birth year is closer to the fall of the Berlin Wall than to today.
Notable Births
Born the same year as you
Lionel Messi·Kendrick Lamar·Novak Djokovic·Zac Efron·Blake Lively
Life Expectancy
Have we made progress?
United States life expectancy at birth
United States life expectancy today
4 years of progress. Steady gains from better medicine, nutrition, and public health.
Computing Power
How much faster the machines have gotten
1 million times more powerfulComputing power has roughly doubled every two years since you were born. That adds up to 1 million×.
20 doublings since 1987Milestone Years
Your milestone birthdays
You turn 40 in 2027 · You turn 65 in 2052 · You turn 100 in 2087
Language
Words that didn't exist when you were born
Still Alive
Jonathan the tortoise was already 155 years old
a Seychelles giant tortoise living on Saint Helena island. He was already 155 years old the year you were born. He's still alive today at 194.
You arrived in a world of 5.0 billion people. Ronald Reagan was in the White House. Walk Like an Egyptian by The Bangles was on the radio. You're part of the last generation that remembers a world without the internet.
In 1987, your voice lived on answering machines and camcorder tapes.
Today, you can clone your own voice with a few minutes of audio.
Hear what that sounds like →keep exploring