The 1in8bn field guide
Data sources and simulation method
Dataset provenance, weighting, units, snapshot dates and limits of the 172-country life simulation.
Country-data provenance
The 172-country statistical dataset comes from the MIT-licensed rollroyces/born-somewhere repository, commit c7cd3109456ceb22415cc9eba3f8f7cf73efa1b1, retrieved on 20 October 2026. Third-party notices record this snapshot and the applicable license.
The reference repository identifies UN World Population Prospects 2024, World Bank WDI, WHO, UNESCO UIS, UNDP HDR, ILO, UNAIDS, UNODC, UNICEF and the World Happiness Report 2024 as statistical sources. This site uses the reference snapshot; it does not claim a new live verification of every underlying indicator.
Birthplace weighting
- Annual-birth weighting samples countries in proportion to the dataset’s annual births.
- Population weighting samples countries in proportion to the dataset’s population.
- Equal-country weighting gives each included country an equal starting chance.
- The included-country catalog and statistical estimates simplify the world; coverage is not a political or territorial claim.
Units and missing values
In the source data, pop is measured in thousands; im and u5 are rates per 1,000 births. The ppp field is an annual purchasing-power reference in international dollars. Missing happiness values remain null rather than being converted to zero.
Purchasing-power comparisons are not live foreign-exchange conversions. Monetary presentation in the interface can vary by the selected display region. Reference statistics may use different source years and can include estimates.
Statistics and fictional outcomes
The age-specific mortality model adapts the reference project’s Gompertz–Makeham calibration. The TypeScript engine combines seeded progression, branching decisions, financial rules and fictional events. Many game mechanisms are simplified probability models rather than direct readings from a national dataset.
National averages do not describe every person or community. The game does not predict individual medical outcomes, wealth, immigration status or lifespan. It is designed for reflection and entertainment.
Attribution and corrections
Consult the third-party notices for the full license and additional map-data attribution. Send suspected data or unit errors to contact@1in8bn.com with the country, indicator and a relevant public source.