World Population
How many people shared the planet
people on Earth when they were born
people on Earth when you were born
By the time your generation arrived, the world had gained 3.22 billion more people. Today it stands at 8.2B - 1.3B more since you were born.
🇺🇸 Country Population
How large the selected country was
people in United States
people in United States
This shows how much the country itself grew between the two generations.
🇺🇸 United States
That year in the country
1970
Kent State shooting - National Guard kills four students
2010
Deepwater Horizon oil spill
Obamacare signed into law
🇺🇸 United States Leadership
Who was in charge
President of United States
President of United States
🇺🇸 Life Expectancy
How long a generation could expect to live
at birth in United States
at birth in United States
Your generation can expect 7.7 years longer on average than the previous one. The gap between the longest- and shortest-lived countries narrowed from 35.4 years to 31.7 years.
🇺🇸 Economy - GDP Per Capita
Real purchasing power at birth
United States - in today's dollars
United States - in today's dollars
All figures adjusted to 2024 dollars. A positive shift means real economic growth, not just inflation.
Economy - Median Household Income (US)
What a typical family earned
median household income in today's dollars
median household income in today's dollars
Figures are in 2024 dollars. This shows whether typical families actually got ahead - adjusted for inflation.
Housing Affordability (US)
How many years of income to buy a home
years of median income to buy median home
years of median income to buy median home
Lower ratio means more affordable. A ratio of 3 means a median home cost 3 years of median salary.
Everyday Prices (US)
What things cost then vs now
All prices adjusted to 2024 dollars. This section stays US-only until equivalent local price series exist for other countries.
🎵 Music
Billboard #1 Song
Simon & Garfunkel
Kesha
🏆 Film
Box Office #1
📺 Television (US)
Most-watched TV show
ABC
Fox
💻 Technology
The defining tech moment
Floppy disk invented at IBM; UNIX operating system developed at Bell Labs
iPad launches in April; Instagram launches in October; 2 billion internet users ...
💾 Storage
Average hard drive capacity
typical computer storage
typical computer storage
📱 Mobile
Mobile phone subscribers worldwide
subscribers globally
subscribers globally
In 1970, recording your voice meant pressing play+record on a cassette.
In 2010, sharing your voice meant voice notes and YouTube vlogs.
Today, AI can recreate anyone's voice from a few minutes of audio, including yours.
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What was happening when each generation arrived
1970
Apollo 13 oxygen tank explodes en route to the Moon; crew safely returns to Earth
National Guard kills four student protesters at Kent State University during Vietnam War protest
The Boeing 747 enters service and long-haul travel changes scale
2010
FIFA World Cup in South Africa ends with Spain winning its first-ever title, defeating Netherlands 1-0 in extra time in Johannesburg
Pakistani floods affect 20 million people in the worst flooding in the country's history, submerging one-fifth of the country
The Haiti earthquake triggers a worldwide relief effort
Social Media Timeline
How old each generation was when the platform era arrived
YouTube at 35 · Twitter at 36
TikTok at 6
The internet age did not arrive all at once. Different birth years experienced it at radically different ages.
Language
Words that did not exist yet
4 more common digital terms were still in the future
most everyday digital words already existed
The vocabulary of modern life arrived in waves. A birth year changes which ideas were not even nameable yet.
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