There are about 50 million elevator trips every day in the United States, which adds up to about 18 billion a year. The Otis Elevator Company alone claims that it carries the equivalent of the world's population in its elevators every nine days.
More facts about elevators:
- Of the 18 billion or so elevator trips in the U.S. each year, about 11 billion take place in New York City. This is not a new trend — even in 1929, New York City elevators were carrying more than 10 million passengers a day.
- The average passenger elevator trip has five passengers, though this varies between countries. Elevator trips in Asia tend to have more than 10 people per trip, but those in the U.S. are closer to the global average of five people.
- Injuries and fatalities from malfunctioning elevators are very low — only about 20-30 people per year die from elevator or escalator malfunctions in the U.S.