# How does the biomass of humans compare with the biomass of other organisms **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 16, 2002, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-biomass-of-humans-compare-with-the-biomass-of-other-organisms/109432 "2002-05-16T19:17:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![berdollos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@berdollos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/berdollos)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2002, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-biomass-of-humans-compare-with-the-biomass-of-other-organisms/109432/1 "2002-05-16T19:17:59Z")
or the mass of buildings or natural features. For starters, I guesstimate the average weight of each person to be 150 pounds. 150 X 6,000,000,000 people is 900,000,000,000 pounds or 450,000,000 tons. What did each WTC weigh??? What is this compared to the weight of all the autos, or the biomass of ants, whales, etc? The comparisons might be interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Stupendous\_man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Stupendous\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stupendous_man)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2002, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-biomass-of-humans-compare-with-the-biomass-of-other-organisms/109432/2 "2002-05-16T19:28:07Z")
That tonnage is off by a significant amount there… You’re missing 3 zeros, are you not? ---
**Author:** ![berdollos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@berdollos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/berdollos)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2002, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-biomass-of-humans-compare-with-the-biomass-of-other-organisms/109432/3 "2002-05-16T19:34:39Z")
900,000,000,000 or 900 billion divided by 2,000 pounds per ton is 450,000,000 or 450 million tons. The previous calculation was 6,000,000,000 or 6 billion people times 150 pounds/person = 900,000,000,000 or 9 nundred billion pounds. ---
**Author:** ![Stupendous\_man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Stupendous\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stupendous_man)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2002, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-biomass-of-humans-compare-with-the-biomass-of-other-organisms/109432/4 "2002-05-16T19:51:47Z")
HOly brain-fart on me today… You’re correct. Nevermind… ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2002, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-biomass-of-humans-compare-with-the-biomass-of-other-organisms/109432/5 "2002-05-16T22:09:01Z")
Sheesh, and here I’ve been thinking “biomass” is a ten-dollar, Al Gore word for “poop.” ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2002, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-biomass-of-humans-compare-with-the-biomass-of-other-organisms/109432/6 "2002-05-16T23:36:31Z")
This one has been done. More than half the world’s biomass is microscopic. If you don’t divide by species, then Plankton outweigh us by several orders of magnitude. I am not convinced that several individual species don’t outweigh us as well. Krill have us beat in straight weight, probably in several species. Trees, even by species outweigh humans by a whole lot. Chickens outnumber us, but I don’t know if it is by enough to make up for the per chicken weight. Tris ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2002, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-biomass-of-humans-compare-with-the-biomass-of-other-organisms/109432/7 "2002-05-16T23:52:51Z")
I was wondering the other day whether there are (numerically) more living people than pieces of Lego. ---
**Author:** ![stockton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@stockton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stockton)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-biomass-of-humans-compare-with-the-biomass-of-other-organisms/109432/8 "2002-05-17T01:25:16Z")
By Mangetout: “I was wondering the other day whether there are (numerically) more living people than pieces of Lego.” I betcha there are 200 crayons out there for every human. Also about five Starbucks franchises per individual. ---
**Author:** ![mmmiiikkkeee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/edb3f5/32.png) [@mmmiiikkkeee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmmiiikkkeee)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-biomass-of-humans-compare-with-the-biomass-of-other-organisms/109432/9 "2002-05-17T07:59:51Z")
Also do a search for the number of cows in existance… it’s in the billion/s range if I’m not mistaken… ---
**Author:** ![Neptune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@Neptune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neptune)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-biomass-of-humans-compare-with-the-biomass-of-other-organisms/109432/10 "2002-05-17T08:10:11Z")
From the Lego web site: [http://www.lego.com/eng/info/profile.asp](http://www.lego.com/eng/info/profile.asp) > [@](#): > > Over the past 60 years global sales of LEGO bricks have topped 320 billion - roughly the equivalent of 52 LEGO bricks for each of the world’s 6 billion inhabitants ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-biomass-of-humans-compare-with-the-biomass-of-other-organisms/109432/11 "2002-05-17T10:10:25Z")
I _ **KNEW** _ it! ---
**Author:** ![sirjamesp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@sirjamesp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sirjamesp)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-biomass-of-humans-compare-with-the-biomass-of-other-organisms/109432/12 "2002-05-17T12:53:12Z")
> [@](#): > > Over the past 60 years global sales of LEGO bricks have topped 320 billion - roughly the equivalent of 52 LEGO bricks for each of the world’s 6 billion inhabitants Someone had better had a word with my little brother - he has _thousands_ of lego bricks in a huge tub. This means he is hogging someone else’s share. Anyone want to claim their 52 bricks?