# How Many People Does The Average Person Meet?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-does-the-average-person-meet/597444>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 24, 2011, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-does-the-average-person-meet/597444 "2011-09-24T09:45:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![freep5637](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/cdc98d/32.png) [@freep5637](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freep5637)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2011, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-does-the-average-person-meet/597444/1 "2011-09-24T09:45:05Z")

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Hi, I know this question will be a difficult one to answer but are there any estimates for the number of people that an average person with a lifespan of say 80 years in the USA in an urban setting will have meaningful contact with? It can be no less than sharing a smile and eye contact on the street all the way to becoming life long friends in terms of ‘contact’ and everything in between. I say no less than sharing a smile and eye contact because I could literally walk amongst thousands everyday where I live but I don’t believe that that counts as ‘contact’ or ‘meeting’ in this context. Thanks, may belong in IMHO, mod away…

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**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2011, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-does-the-average-person-meet/597444/2 "2011-09-24T10:28:02Z")

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I reckon if you include such people as a shop assistant or checkout operator, 5,000 is probably an underestimation.

But if you worked in retail yourself and include every customer you encounter, that could number in the 50,000.

I am pulling these numbers out of thin air.

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**Author:** ![6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/e19adc/32.png) [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2011, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-does-the-average-person-meet/597444/3 "2011-09-24T10:40:42Z")

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[About 50,200,000 in 0.27 seconds](http://www.google.com.au/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=how+many+people+does+the+average+person+meet+in+their+lifetime&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&redir_esc=&ei=_LJ9ToHKEsXomAXeyemiBQ)

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**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2011, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-does-the-average-person-meet/597444/4 "2011-09-24T15:42:01Z")

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It’s not exactly the same thing, but the average number of friends any given Facebook user has is 130 going by [their statistics](https://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics).