Ever wonder how you fit into the teeming swarm of humanity, statistically? Now in beta, Population.io is a great new site designed by Benedikt Groß (previously featured on Co.Design for his typeface made up of satellite imagery) that visualizes your place in the world population in a series of attractively design tables and charts. That includes, rather morbidly, an estimate of when you'll die.
At the top of the page, you can watch as babies are burped out around the world at a rate of about three every second. It's once you enter your date of birth, your country of origin, and your gender that Population.io's magic really happens, though, quantifying exactly what your place in the world's population really is. And as it turns out, some of the results can be really surprising.
For example, it might turn out that you're older than you think you are. I was born in 1979, so I'm 35, which I don't think many people would say is all that old, but compared to the rest of the world's population, I'm bordering on senescent. It turns out that being 35 makes me older than 59% of the world's population.
The stats continue. Plugging my date of birth into Population.io showed me that my birthday is shared with roughly 275,764 other people, 11,490 of which were born within an hour of me. And almost 60% of the people who share my birthday live in India and China.
As for when I'll die? Thanks to being born in America, my life expectancy is roughly five years better than average, and I'll probably die around February 14, 2056 (Valentine's Day. Figures). There's even a cool way to compare your life expectancy to an alternate you who was born at a different point in space-time. For example, the John Brownlee who is writing these words today will probably live about six years longer than a John Brownlee from 1964.
Check out Population.io for yourself here.