Act I
The World Stage
World Population
How many people shared the planet
people on Earth when you were born
2.9 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 59 people alive today was born in 1990.
World Leaders
Who was in charge
United States President
George H. W. Bush
President
UK Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher (to Nov), then John Major
Prime Minister
UN Secretary-General
Javier Pérez de Cuéllar
United Nations
World Events
Defining moments of 1990
Nelson Mandela released from Victor Verster Prison after 27 years, signaling the end of apartheid in South Africa
Iraq invades Kuwait, triggering the Gulf Crisis and a US-led international coalition response
German reunification - East and West Germany officially reunify after 45 years of division
Margaret Thatcher resigns as UK Prime Minister after 11 years, succeeded by John Major
Lech Walesa elected President of Poland in the country's first popular presidential election
Baby Names
Most popular names in 1990 (US)
Boys
Michael, Christopher, Matthew
Girls
Jessica, Ashley, Brittany
Atmosphere
CO₂ in the air you first breathed
CO₂ concentration (Keeling Curve)
+68.1 ppm since your birth
CO₂ has climbed 19% since 1990. It's one of the few numbers that only goes up.
Act II
What Things Cost
Average Annual Salary
What workers took home
$29.9k 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 $30k in 1990 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 1990
life expectancy at birth in 1990
A 33.2-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 3.2x the average annual salary
Median home now costs 5.3x the average annual salary
Housing has gotten 1.7x 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
Hold On
Wilson Phillips
Oscar Best Picture
Driving Miss Daisy
Directed by Oliver Stone
Grammy Album of the Year
Nick of Time
Bonnie Raitt
TV Premieres
Shows born the same year as you
Sports
Champions of the year
World Series
Cincinnati Reds
Baseball
FIFA World Cup
West Germany
Football
F1 Champion
Ayrton Senna
Formula One
Super Bowl
San Francisco 49ers
55-10 vs Denver Broncos
Screen & Page
What everyone was watching and reading
Most-Watched Show
Cheers
Television
Fiction Bestseller
The Plains of Passage
Jean M. Auel
Box Office #1
Home Alone
Film
Act IV
The State of Technology
Technology Milestone
Where technology stood
Tim Berners-Lee proposes the World Wide Web at CERN; the first web server goes live
Notable Tech Releases
What launched that year
Tim Berners-Lee publishes proposal for the World Wide Web at CERN
Windows 3.0 released by Microsoft, achieving mass-market success with 3 million copies sold in its first year
Adobe Photoshop 1.0 released for Macintosh
The Hubble Space Telescope launched aboard Space Shuttle Discovery
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
250M
people in United States
GDP per Capita
$24k
per person per year
Your Birth Cohort
140M
babies born worldwide that year
Your birth year is closer to Nelson Mandela's release from prison than to today.
Notable Births
Born the same year as you
Emma Watson·Jennifer Lawrence·The Weeknd·Kristen Stewart·Rita Ora
Life Expectancy
Have we made progress?
United States life expectancy at birth
United States life expectancy today
3 years of progress. Steady gains from better medicine, nutrition, and public health.
Computing Power
How much faster the machines have gotten
262,144 times more powerfulComputing power has roughly doubled every two years since you were born. That adds up to 262,144×.
18 doublings since 1990Milestone Years
Your milestone birthdays
You turn 40 in 2030 · You turn 65 in 2055 · You turn 100 in 2090
Language
Words that didn't exist when you were born
Still Alive
Jonathan the tortoise was already 158 years old
a Seychelles giant tortoise living on Saint Helena island. He was already 158 years old the year you were born. He's still alive today at 194.
You arrived in a world of 5.3 billion people. George H. W. Bush was in the White House. Hold On by Wilson Phillips was on the radio. You came of age as the internet rewired everything - and you were young enough to adapt.
In 1990, capturing your voice meant a voicemail or a camcorder.
Today, you can clone your own voice with a few minutes of audio.
Hear what that sounds like →keep exploring