8 Billion Lives
Be born

Where you could be born / Asia / Eastern Asia

Born in China

About 1 in 15 people born in 2023 started life in China. A boy can expect to live 75 years and a girl 81, up from 42 and 46 in 1950. Most people live in cities, and nearly everyone has basic drinking water.

1 in 15
odds of being born here
8.9 million births · Ranked 2nd of 230
75 / 81
years of life, boys / girls
Was 42 / 46 in 1950
$6,631
income per person a year
2021 dollars · Ranked 104th of 203 · extrapolated
66%
live in a city
The rest live in villages

Life and health

Life lasts about 34 years longer than in 1950. Child deaths fell from 206 in every 1,000 births to 7.2.

How long a life lasts

GirlsBoys

0255075100195019852023

Years a baby born that year could expect to live.

Children who die before age 5
0100200300400195019852023

In every 1,000 births.

Life expectancy at birth75.2 years for boys, 80.9 for girlsUN WPP 2024
Children who die before age 57.2 in every 1,000 birthsUN WPP 2024
Deaths a year11,684,000UN WPP 2024
Doctors per 1,000 people3.1World Bank WDI
Children immunized against measles95%World Bank WDI
New tuberculosis cases a year52 per 100,000 peopleWorld Bank WDI

Family

Women had 5.8 children on average in 1950. Now it is 1.0, below the 2.1 it takes to keep a population steady.

Children per woman
02468195019852023

Average over a lifetime.

Children per woman1.00UN WPP 2024
Average age of mothers at birth29.0 yearsUN WPP 2024

Money and work

If every 100 coins of income were shared out, the richest fifth would hold 44 and the poorest fifth 7.

Who gets the income
Share of all income by fifth of the population, 2022
7%Poorest fifth
11%Second
16%Middle
22%Fourth
44%Richest fifth
Income per personabout $6,631 a year (2021 dollars, adjusted for prices)World Bank PIP, scaled between survey years Extrapolated
Share of income going to the richest fifth / poorest fifth44% / 7% (2022)World Bank PIP
Unemployment4.7% of the workforce (2023)World Bank WDI
Price rises0.2% a year (2023)World Bank WDI
Growth in output per person5.5% (2023)World Bank WDI
Jobs in farming23% of jobsWorld Bank WDI
Self-employed38% of jobs (2025)World Bank WDI
Secondary school enrolment92% (can pass 100 when older students are counted)World Bank WDI

Daily life

The largest city is Shanghai, with 24.9 million people.

66%
live in cities
100%
have electricity at home
96%
have basic drinking water
Largest cities
People living there
Shanghai24.9 million
Chongqing22.0 million
Chengdu20.9 million
Beijing19.0 million
Guangzhou18.7 million
Languages
Share of people who can use each
Chinese90%
Wu Chinese6%
Cantonese5%
Cantonese5%
Xiang Chinese3%
Chinese is official.

Cities and regions

Every state, province and large city with a page.

Largest regions

Guangdong105.1 million
Shandong76.5 million
Jiangsu63.0 million
Shanghai51.4 million
Sichuan44.3 million
Chongqing43.6 million
Zhejiang39.4 million
Liaoning36.3 million
Hubei32.6 million
Anhui29.3 million

Sourced: GeoNames Population of each state, province or region.

Large cities

Sourced: GeoNames Cities with a page: a million people or more.

All 31 regions
  • Guangdong105.1 million
  • Shandong76.5 million
  • Jiangsu63.0 million
  • Shanghai51.4 million
  • Sichuan44.3 million
  • Chongqing43.6 million
  • Zhejiang39.4 million
  • Liaoning36.3 million
  • Hubei32.6 million
  • Anhui29.3 million
  • Henan26.8 million
  • Hebei23.2 million
  • Heilongjiang23.0 million
  • Shaanxi22.3 million
  • Shanxi20.1 million
  • Guangxi19.8 million
  • Beijing19.8 million
  • Hunan18.5 million
  • Yunnan18.3 million
  • Fujian17.6 million
  • Inner Mongolia15.3 million
  • Gansu15.3 million
  • Tianjin14.8 million
  • Jilin13.8 million
  • Jiangxi13.4 million
  • Ningxia13.4 million
  • Xinjiang12.9 million
  • Guizhou11.8 million
  • Hainan7.7 million
  • Qinghai3.5 million
  • Tibet2.6 million

People on the move

About 0.8% as many people born here live abroad as live here. The most common destinations are Hong Kong, United States, Japan.

Where people born here live abroad
By country of residence, 2024
Hong Kong2,490,414
United States2,488,775
Japan809,893
Residents born abroad0.1% (2024)World Bank WDI
People born here who live abroadequal to 0.8% of the people who live hereUN DESA migrant stock
Where they go mostHong Kong (2.5 million), United States (2.5 million), Japan (809,893)UN DESA migrant stock
Money sent home from abroadabout $30.0 billion a year (2025)World Bank WDI

Safety nets

100% of older people receive a pension. Help for someone who loses a job reaches 22%.

100%
of older people receive a pension (2022)
22%
of unemployed people receive a benefit (2021)

Events in the data

The game draws real events from these records, so a life lived here can meet them.

Reported COVID-19 deaths, 2020 to 2024122,326Our World in Data, from WHO
Significant earthquakes recorded since 1950106; the deadliest, in 1976, killed about 242,769 people (magnitude 7.5)NOAA NCEI
Hurricane-strength storms since 1980105NOAA IBTrACS
Deaths in organized violence2,876 between 1989 and 2009UCDP

Now live it.

Born in China, to a family drawn from these numbers. Every life replays exactly from its seed.

Be born in China

Elsewhere in Asia

All countries

How to read the sources. Every figure is sourced to a named dataset, shown beside it. A figure marked "Extrapolated" is estimated by a model because no survey covers the year. UN figures are for 2023, the latest year of UN estimates; other figures are the latest year their dataset has. Rank 1 is the highest figure among 230 countries and territories. All sources and licences