Act I
The World Stage
World Population
How many people shared the planet
people on Earth when you were born
2.0 billion more people have arrived since
You were born into a world approaching 7 billion. Population growth has begun to slow.
1 in 63 people alive today was born in 2001.
World Leaders
Who was in charge
United States President
George W. Bush
President
UK Prime Minister
Tony Blair
Prime Minister
UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan
United Nations
World Events
Defining moments of 2001
September 11 terrorist attacks kill 2,977 people in New York, Washington DC, and Pennsylvania, reshaping global security and foreign policy
US and coalition forces launch Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, targeting the Taliban regime and al-Qaeda
Wikipedia launches on January 15 as a free online encyclopedia; space station Mir deorbits and burns up over the Pacific in March after 15 years in orbit
US-China diplomatic crisis as EP-3 spy plane collides with Chinese fighter jet over the South China Sea, pilot killed
Enron Corporation files for bankruptcy in the largest corporate collapse in US history up to that point, exposing massive accounting fraud
Baby Names
Most popular names in 2001 (US)
Boys
Jacob, Michael, Matthew
Girls
Emily, Madison, Hannah
Atmosphere
CO₂ in the air you first breathed
CO₂ concentration (Keeling Curve)
+51.4 ppm since your birth
CO₂ has climbed 14% since 2001. It's one of the few numbers that only goes up.
Act II
What Things Cost
Average Annual Salary
What workers took home
$42.9k US median household incomeAdjusted for inflation, that's worth about $76k in today's dollars.
Today: $80kPurchasing Power
Are we actually better off today?
What $43k in 2001 is worth right now
5% 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 2001
life expectancy at birth in 2001
A 33.8-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 4.1x 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
Hanging by a Moment
Lifehouse
Oscar Best Picture
Gladiator
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Grammy Album of the Year
Two Against Nature
Steely Dan
TV Premieres
Shows born the same year as you
Sports
Champions of the year
World Series
Arizona Diamondbacks
Baseball
F1 Champion
Michael Schumacher
Formula One
Super Bowl
Baltimore Ravens
34-7 vs New York Giants
NBA Champion
Los Angeles Lakers
Basketball
Screen & Page
What everyone was watching and reading
Most-Watched Show
ER
Television
Fiction Bestseller
Desecration
Jerry B. Jenkins & Tim LaHaye
Box Office #1
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Film
Act IV
The State of Technology
Technology Milestone
Where technology stood
Wikipedia launched in January; Apple releases the first iPod in October, transforming how people carry music
Notable Tech Releases
What launched that year
Apple iPod launched on October 23, with 5 GB storage for 1,000 songs
Wikipedia launches on January 15 as a free online encyclopedia
Microsoft releases Windows XP in October, the most stable Windows yet
Mac OS X publicly released, bringing Unix foundation to Apple computers
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 109 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
285M
people in United States
GDP per Capita
$36k
per person per year
Your Birth Cohort
131M
babies born worldwide that year
Your birth year is closer to 9/11 than to today.
Notable Births
Born the same year as you
Billie Eilish·Emma Chamberlain·Isabela Merced·Sasha Obama·Caleb McLaughlin
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
8,192 times more powerfulComputing power has roughly doubled every two years since you were born. That adds up to 8,192×.
13 doublings since 2001Milestone Years
Your milestone birthdays
You turn 40 in 2041 · You turn 65 in 2066 · You turn 100 in 2101
Language
Words that didn't exist when you were born
Still Alive
Jonathan the tortoise was already 169 years old
a Seychelles giant tortoise living on Saint Helena island. He was already 169 years old the year you were born. He's still alive today at 194.
You arrived in a world of 6.2 billion people. George W. Bush was in the White House. Hanging by a Moment by Lifehouse was on the radio. You've never known a world without Google. The smartphone arrived in your childhood.
In 2001, recording your voice meant GarageBand or a cheap USB mic.
Today, you can clone your own voice with a few minutes of audio.
Hear what that sounds like →keep exploring