Born ThenLife in the 1970s
Be born somewhere between 1970 and 1979, weighted by real births, and live five lives from that year on.
The numbers
The world had about 4.0 billion people, and about 1.21 billion babies were born in the 1970s. A child born then could expect, on world average, about 58 years of life; 13% of children died before turning five. Women had about 4.7 children each. Roughly 58% of adults could read, and 32% of people lived in towns and cities. The places with the most births were China (21%), India (19%), Indonesia (4%), Brazil (3%), Bangladesh (3%).
From Gapminder and the World Bank, averaged over the world and weighted by births; before 1950 most are estimates. How it works
What happened
- Great Migration of Black Americans 1916–1970
- Bracero program and Mexican migration to the United States 1942–2007
- Apartheid 1948–1994
- Division of Germany 1949–1990
- Italian economic miracle and the move north 1950–1970
- Japanese postwar economic boom 1955–1973
- Vietnam War 1955–1975
- Turkish labour migration to West Germany 1961–1973
- Korean economic miracle 1962–1996
- Vietnam War and the American draft 1964–1973
- Brazilian military dictatorship 1964–1985
- Colombian armed conflict 1964–2016
- Cultural Revolution 1966–1976
- Green Revolution in India 1966–1985
- Nigerian Civil War (Biafra) 1967–1970
- Egypt's wars with Israel (1967–1973) 1967–1973
- Ujamaa villagization in Tanzania 1967–1977
- 1970 Bhola cyclone 1970
- Bangladesh Liberation War 1971
- Martial law under Marcos 1972–1986
- Migration to the Gulf 1973–2025
- Cambodian genocide 1975–1979
- The Emergency in India 1975–1977
- Dirty War in Argentina 1976–1983
- Iranian Revolution 1978–1982
- China's reform and opening 1978–2015
- Soviet–Afghan War 1979–1989