How Many Times Does an Average Human Breath a Day?

By Staff WriterLast Updated December 05, 2023

An adult at rest breathes about 17,280 to 23,040 times a day at 12 to 16 breaths per minute. Other factors, such as exercise and vigorous physical activity, result in more breaths per day.

Adults breathe about 6.3 to 8.4 million breaths per year. People who live to 80 take many more than 500 million breaths in their lifetimes.

Children breathe about 44 times per minute. Respiration rates may increase because of illness, fever and other conditions. Between these factors and vigorous physical activity, the number of breaths per day, year and lifetime could be much higher than estimated with these figures.