1in1t

Live a life as an insect

UncommonOdds: 1 in 175

About ten quintillion insects are alive at any moment. The story follows one kind at random. About 1 × 10¹⁹ insects are alive right now. Your odds of being reborn as one are 1 in 175.

Sources: Smithsonian Institution estimate: about 10 quintillion (10¹⁹) insects alive at any time (order of magnitude only).

Your life

  1. Day 1 · You are an egg laid in a rainforest in Borneo.
  2. Day 3 · You hatch as a larva in still water and start filtering food.
  3. Week 2 · You molt and grow, molt and grow.
  4. Week 3 · You seal yourself into a pupa. Inside, your body is rebuilt almost from scratch.
  5. Week 4 · You rise to the surface, split your skin and fly. You will live only days as an adult.
  6. Day 2 of adulthood · You join a swarm dancing over the water at dusk.
  7. Day 3 of adulthood · You find a partner in the swarm. Eggs for the next generation.

Get rebornEvery number and its source

Questions

What are the odds of being reborn as an insect?

Odds: 1 in 175. About ten quintillion insects are alive at any moment. The story follows one kind at random. (Smithsonian Institution estimate: about 10 quintillion (10¹⁹) insects alive at any time.)

What are my odds of being reborn as a human?

About 1 in 210 billion if any animal can be drawn. There are roughly 8.2 billion people, but around 1.3 sextillion copepods, 440 quintillion soil nematodes and 10 quintillion insects. Among mammals and birds only, the odds improve to about 1 in 21.

What is the most common animal on Earth?

By head count, tiny crustaceans called copepods (about 1.3 × 10²¹, an order-of-magnitude estimate), then soil nematodes (about 4.4 × 10²⁰, van den Hoogen et al. 2019). That is why the true-odds draw almost always makes you something small.

The odds, animal by animal

Copepod Soil nematode Ant Antarctic krill Honey bee Fish Wild bird Bat Chicken Wild rodent Human House sparrow Cow Dog Elephant Blue whale Giant panda