Imagine a toilet in a home with two healthy adults (a male and a female), and two healthy children (say, nine and six years old). Out of x number of visits to that toilet over a period of time, how many will be just a #1 and how many will be a #2 (or a #1 and a #2)?
Or to put this in other words, the average urination:defecation ratio for a human is _____?
I’ve read the average is between 1 bowel movement every 2-3 days up to 2-3 bowel movements a day. Personally I couldn’t imagine only shitting once every couple days though, that seems odd.
It varies greatly depending on your diet and exercise regime etc. I think for most people once a day or once every two days is typical, but 2 or 3 times a day may be normal for a particular individual.
British men and women in answering a questionnaire claimed a median bowel movement frequency of 7 times per week or once a day. The same participants were asked to keep a journal of their bowel movements. The journal data were found to confirm that median frequency is indeed just about once per day. Cite: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1379343/pdf/gut00573-0122.pdf
This may tie in with the design of modern low-water-usage toilets. Many people have complained about low-flush toilets not doing a complete water change, and often needing two flushes after a #2. (This was more so in the earlier days of low-flush toilets. Design have apparently improved more recently.)
Dave Berry did an article on low-flush toilets some years back, which raised such a massive popular response that he did at least two follow-up articles on it.
Cecil Himself discussed the question here. TL;DR: People pee a lot more often than they poop. So, a toilet designed to need just one flush after a pee but two flushes after a poop may be the optimal design for water conservation.