Eight countries, eight different lives

Every life in One Life is born in one of eight countries. The country is the first roll, and the largest.

Countries · October 2026

The single biggest fact about a life is where it starts. A baby born in Japan today can expect to live about thirty years longer than a baby born in Nigeria. The same job pays many times more in one country than another; the same illness is free in one and ruinous in the next.

One Life is set in eight countries, chosen to cover the range: four rich countries with different ways of looking after people, two large Latin American countries, and the two most populous countries in the world after China. Each is played in its own money, with its own schools and exams, its own prices, its own health care and its own state pension, or lack of one. Each page below describes what a life there is like in the game, and the numbers behind it.

In Random Life, the country is dealt the way births are dealt in the world, so India and Nigeria come up often. Today’s Life takes the eight countries in turn, one a day, the same for every player. Build Your Life lets you choose.