--- title: "How many vending machines are there? roughly 15 million worldw" description: "roughly 15 million worldwide — about 4 million in Japan alone How the figure is estimated, how confident it is, and what makes the scale graspable." url: https://atoneplace.net/how-many/vending-machines/ site: "At One Place" --- # How many vending machines are there? **How many vending machines are there?: roughly 15 million worldwide — about 4 million in Japan alone** Japan's machines sell roughly 20 million drinks a day and account for several percent of the country's beverage retail. They also draw about 1% of Japan's electricity. Japan has close to 4 million vending machines, roughly one for every 31 people, which is the highest density anywhere by a wide margin and is the reason the machines are a national cliché. The usual explanations — high land prices, low crime, a cash-heavy economy, an ageing labour force — all contribute, and the low crime rate is the load-bearing one, since machines full of cash survive unattended on residential streets. The United States has perhaps 5 to 7 million, mostly indoors. Worldwide the total is on the order of 15 million. ## How the figure is arrived at Japan's figure is a real industry census — the manufacturers' and operators' association surveys installed units annually and splits them by product category. Everywhere else the number is a market-research extrapolation from operator revenues, which is why the global total is soft while the Japanese one is not. ## How confident it is - **Low estimate:** 12,000,000 - **High estimate:** 18,000,000 - **Spread:** 1.5× between the bounds ## Other things people built counts - [How many countries are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/countries/) — 195 — or 193, or 206, or 249, depending on who is counting - [How many cars are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/cars-in-the-world/) — about 1.5 billion motor vehicles - [How many planes are in the air right now?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/planes-in-the-air-right-now/) — roughly 10,000 to 20,000 at any moment - [How many languages are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/languages/) — about 7,150 living languages - [How many McDonald's are there?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/mcdonalds-restaurants/) — about 43,000 in over 100 countries - [How many phones are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/phones-in-the-world/) — about 8.9 billion mobile connections — more than there are people - [How many nuclear weapons are there?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/nuclear-weapons/) — about 12,200 warheads - [How many websites are there?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/websites/) — about 1.1 billion hostnames — but only around 200 million active - [How many books have ever been published?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/books-ever-published/) — about 130 million as of 2010 — probably over 200 million now - [How many airports are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/airports-in-the-world/) — about 45,000 with runways — but only around 4,000 with scheduled airline service - [How many ATMs are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/atms-in-the-world/) — about 3 million - [How many cities are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/cities/) — about 10,000 with over 50,000 people; 33 megacities over 10 million - [How many buildings are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/buildings-in-the-world/) — somewhere between 1.5 and 4 billion - [How many computers are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/computers-in-the-world/) — roughly 2 billion personal computers in use ## Common questions ### How many vending machines are there? roughly 15 million worldwide — about 4 million in Japan alone ### How is that estimated? Japan's figure is a real industry census — the manufacturers' and operators' association surveys installed units annually and splits them by product category. Everywhere else the number is a market-research extrapolation from operator revenues, which is why the global total is soft while the Japanese one is not. ## Related pages - [How many countries are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/countries/) - [How many cars are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/cars-in-the-world/) - [How many planes are in the air right now?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/planes-in-the-air-right-now/) - [How many languages are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/languages/) - [How many McDonald's are there?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/mcdonalds-restaurants/) - [How many phones are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/phones-in-the-world/) - [How many nuclear weapons are there?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/nuclear-weapons/) - [How many websites are there?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/websites/) - [How many people are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/people-alive-right-now/) - [How many stars are there in the universe?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/stars-in-the-universe/) - [How many bones are in the human body?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/bones-in-the-human-body/) - [How many grains of sand are there on Earth?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/grains-of-sand-on-earth/) - [How many ants are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/ants-on-earth/) - [How many trees are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/trees-on-earth/) ## Sources - Typical range compiled from manufacturer specifications — At One Place (/about/)