Act I
The World Stage
World Population
How many people shared the planet
people on Earth when you were born
2.5 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 1995.
World Leaders
Who was in charge
United States President
Bill Clinton
President
UK Prime Minister
John Major
Prime Minister
UN Secretary-General
Boutros Boutros-Ghali
United Nations
World Events
Defining moments of 1995
Kobe earthquake kills 6,434 people in Japan and causes $100 billion in damage, exposing disaster preparedness failures
Tokyo subway sarin attack by Aum Shinrikyo kills 13 and injures thousands in the worst terrorist attack on Japan's soil
Oklahoma City bombing kills 168 people in the deadliest domestic terrorist attack in US history at that time
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin assassinated by a right-wing Israeli extremist after a peace rally in Tel Aviv
Dayton Peace Agreement signed, ending nearly four years of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Baby Names
Most popular names in 1995 (US)
Boys
Michael, Matthew, Tyler
Girls
Jessica, Ashley, Emily
Atmosphere
CO₂ in the air you first breathed
CO₂ concentration (Keeling Curve)
+61.7 ppm since your birth
CO₂ has climbed 17% since 1995. It's one of the few numbers that only goes up.
Act II
What Things Cost
Average Annual Salary
What workers took home
$34.1k US median household incomeAdjusted for inflation, that's worth about $70k in today's dollars.
Today: $80kPurchasing Power
Are we actually better off today?
What $34k in 1995 is worth right now
12% 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 1995
life expectancy at birth in 1995
A 34.0-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
Gangsta's Paradise
Coolio featuring L.V.
Oscar Best Picture
Forrest Gump
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Grammy Album of the Year
MTV Unplugged in New York
Nirvana
TV Premieres
Shows born the same year as you
Sports
Champions of the year
World Series
Atlanta Braves
Baseball
F1 Champion
Michael Schumacher
Formula One
Super Bowl
San Francisco 49ers
49-26 vs San Diego Chargers
NBA Champion
Houston Rockets
Basketball
Screen & Page
What everyone was watching and reading
Most-Watched Show
ER
Television
Fiction Bestseller
The Rainmaker
John Grisham
Box Office #1
Toy Story
Film
Act IV
The State of Technology
Technology Milestone
Where technology stood
Windows 95 launches to massive queues worldwide; the internet goes mainstream with 45 million users
Notable Tech Releases
What launched that year
Windows 95 launches on August 24 with lines around the block and over one million copies sold in four days
Netscape Communications goes public, triggering the dot-com boom - stock price doubles on opening day
Java programming language released by Sun Microsystems, enabling web interactivity
DVD format announced jointly by Sony, Panasonic, Philips, and Toshiba
Social Media Timeline
How old were you when these launched?
The Universe
Worlds discovered beyond our solar system
confirmed exoplanets
confirmed and counting
We've gone from 8 to 5,800. Most of these worlds were found by a single space telescope called Kepler.
Act V
Your Place in Time
🇺🇸 United States
Your country the year you arrived
Population
263M
people in United States
GDP per Capita
$29k
per person per year
Your Birth Cohort
138M
babies born worldwide that year
Your birth year is closer to Nelson Mandela becoming South Africa's president than to today.
Notable Births
Born the same year as you
Kendall Jenner·Troye Sivan·Gigi Hadid·Dua Lipa·Post Malone
Life Expectancy
Have we made progress?
United States life expectancy at birth
United States life expectancy today
A small gain, but every year counts.
Computing Power
How much faster the machines have gotten
65,536 times more powerfulComputing power has roughly doubled every two years since you were born. That adds up to 65,536×.
16 doublings since 1995Milestone Years
Your milestone birthdays
You turn 40 in 2035 · You turn 65 in 2060 · You turn 100 in 2095
Language
Words that didn't exist when you were born
Still Alive
Jonathan the tortoise was already 163 years old
a Seychelles giant tortoise living on Saint Helena island. He was already 163 years old the year you were born. He's still alive today at 194.
You arrived in a world of 5.7 billion people. Bill Clinton was in the White House. Gangsta's Paradise by Coolio featuring L.V. was on the radio. You came of age as the internet rewired everything - and you were young enough to adapt.
In 1995, 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