live estimate
people pooping right now
34,230,937people
0.417% of humanity
modelled estimate · updated every second · nothing here is actually being counted
pooping since you opened this page
0
bowel movements every day
9,858,509,872
movements starting every second
114,103
by the numbers
movements started
114,103
movements per second
mass produced
23
tonnes per second
Are you pooping right now?
Nobody is counting the world. We can count you, though.
confirmed poopers today0 people
said not right now0 people
See what's happening in your country
We only use your location to work out your country. We don't store your address.
by country — right now
| country | local time | awake | people |
|---|---|---|---|
| China | 08:41 | 85% | 4,981,655 |
| India | 06:11 | 25% | 1,524,860 |
| United States | 19:41 | 90% | 1,281,693 |
| Indonesia | 07:41 | 60% | 714,303 |
| Brazil | 21:41 | 74% | 656,172 |
| Mexico | 18:41 | 92% | 505,796 |
| Japan | 09:41 | 93% | 478,046 |
| Philippines | 08:41 | 85% | 413,620 |
| Vietnam | 07:41 | 60% | 253,996 |
| Colombia | 19:41 | 90% | 200,346 |
How this works (the honest bit).
The frequency is better established than most things on this network: most healthy adults defecate somewhere between three times a day and three times a week, which averages out near once a day, and we use 1.2 to allow for the long tail. We assume about five minutes a time, which is sitting rather than strictly defecating. That puts roughly 34 million people indisposed at any moment. The mass follows from an average stool weight, and is a rough figure - the figure at the top is a count of people, and the tonnage is a flourish. Every figure on this page is a model built from population data, each country's local clock and the assumptions above. It is an estimate, it moves every second, and at least one of them is certainly true.
Why does the gut work on its own?
Your digestive tract has its own nervous system and can run without your brain. That is why you do not have to remember to digest.
- There is a second nervous system in the gut wall. Roughly a hundred million neurons are embedded in the digestive tract, forming networks that can coordinate movement and secretion independently. It is not as complex as the brain, and the comparison is usually oversold, but it is genuinely autonomous.
- Reflexes run locally. The gut can move contents along, respond to stretch, and adjust secretion without instruction from above. The brain modulates this. It does not operate it.
- The vagus nerve is mostly outbound, not inbound. The main connection between gut and brain is largely a report upward rather than a command downward. The gut tells the brain what is happening far more than the brain tells it what to do.
- Severing the connection does not stop digestion. When the nerves between gut and brain are interrupted, digestion continues. The gut manages its own basic programme, which is why it can work while you sleep.
The second brain phrasing has become a marketing line, and it does more than the anatomy supports. There is a real autonomous nervous system in the gut; that is not the same as a thinking one.
Enteric nervous system anatomy and physiology, including work on vagal afferent traffic.