Act I
The World Stage
World Population
How many people shared the planet
people on Earth when you were born
1.4 billion more people have arrived since
You were born into a world approaching 7 billion. Population growth has begun to slow.
1 in 59 people alive today was born in 2009.
World Leaders
Who was in charge
United States President
Barack Obama
President
UK Prime Minister
Gordon Brown
Prime Minister
UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon
United Nations
World Events
Defining moments of 2009
Barack Obama inaugurated as the 44th US President on January 20 before 1.8 million people on the National Mall - the largest crowd in Washington DC history
H1N1 swine flu pandemic declared by WHO in June, eventually infecting 700 million people worldwide by August
Michael Jackson dies suddenly on June 25 at age 50 from acute propofol intoxication, triggering global mourning
Somali pirates seize the US cargo ship Maersk Alabama; Captain Richard Phillips held hostage before Navy SEAL rescue
Copenhagen climate summit ends without a binding agreement, disappointing climate activists but establishing a voluntary framework
Baby Names
Most popular names in 2009 (US)
Boys
Jacob, Ethan, Michael
Girls
Isabella, Emma, Olivia
Atmosphere
CO₂ in the air you first breathed
CO₂ concentration (Keeling Curve)
+35.1 ppm since your birth
CO₂ has climbed 9% since 2009. It's one of the few numbers that only goes up.
Act II
What Things Cost
Average Annual Salary
What workers took home
$49.8k US median household incomeAdjusted for inflation, that's worth about $73k in today's dollars.
Today: $80kPurchasing Power
Are we actually better off today?
What $50k in 2009 is worth right now
9% 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 2009
life expectancy at birth in 2009
A 31.9-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 4.3x the average annual salary
Median home now costs 5.3x the average annual salary
Housing has gotten 1.2x 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
Boom Boom Pow
Black Eyed Peas
Oscar Best Picture
Slumdog Millionaire
Directed by Danny Boyle
Grammy Album of the Year
Raising Sand
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
TV Premieres
Shows born the same year as you
Sports
Champions of the year
World Series
New York Yankees
Baseball
F1 Champion
Jenson Button
Formula One
Super Bowl
Pittsburgh Steelers
27-23 vs Arizona Cardinals
NBA Champion
Los Angeles Lakers
Basketball
Screen & Page
What everyone was watching and reading
Most-Watched Show
American Idol
Television
Fiction Bestseller
The Lost Symbol
Dan Brown
Box Office #1
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Film
Act IV
The State of Technology
Technology Milestone
Where technology stood
Bitcoin white paper published by Satoshi Nakamoto; WhatsApp founded; Minecraft alpha released; US digital TV switchover complete
Notable Tech Releases
What launched that year
Bitcoin genesis block mined on January 3 by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto
WhatsApp founded in January by former Yahoo employees Jan Koum and Brian Acton
Google Android 2.0 launches, rapidly gaining smartphone market share
Windows 7 released in October to strong reviews, fixing Vista's problems
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 374 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
307M
people in United States
GDP per Capita
$47k
per person per year
Your Birth Cohort
138M
babies born worldwide that year
Your birth year is closer to the launch of the iPhone than to today.
Notable Births
Born the same year as you
Leah Sava Jeffries·Julia Butters·Christian Convery
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
512 times more powerfulComputing power has roughly doubled every two years since you were born. That adds up to 512×.
9 doublings since 2009Milestone Years
Your milestone birthdays
You turn 18 in 2027 · You turn 40 in 2049 · You turn 65 in 2074 · You turn 100 in 2109
Still Alive
Jonathan the tortoise was already 177 years old
a Seychelles giant tortoise living on Saint Helena island. He was already 177 years old the year you were born. He's still alive today at 194.
You arrived in a world of 6.8 billion people. Barack Obama was in the White House. Boom Boom Pow by Black Eyed Peas was on the radio. You've never known a world without Google. The smartphone arrived in your childhood.
In 2009, 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