How many breaths will you take?
You breathe about 22 000 times a day and barely notice one of them.
Almost exactly one day
22,000 breaths is more than 3 of the 5 references on this page.
Reference figures are measurements and are rounded; the unit conversion behind them is exact.
| Reference | Size | Yours ÷ theirs | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| one minute | 15 breaths | 1,467× | |
| one hour | 900 breaths | 24.4× | |
| one day | 21,600 breaths | 1.02× | |
| one year | 7,884,000 breaths | 1/358 | |
| a whole life | 575,000,000 breaths | 1/26,136 | About 73 years |
Worth knowing
- At 15 breaths a minute and half a litre each, you move about 11 000 litres of air a day — the volume of a small room.
- Over a lifetime that is around 300 million litres, or 120 Olympic swimming pools of air.
Frequently asked
How many breaths do you take a day?
About 21 600 at a resting rate of 15 a minute. Children breathe faster; a newborn takes 40 to 60 breaths a minute.
How much air do your lungs hold?
Total lung capacity is about 6 litres in an adult man, but a normal breath moves only 500 ml of it. The rest is reserve you rarely use.