How Many Small Water Leaks Do You Need to Fill an Olympic-Sized Swimming Pool, Really?

With the 2024 Olympics underway in Paris, we can't help but think about everyone's favorite measure of water leaks: the Olympic-sized swimming pool.

At approximately 660,430 gallons (or 2.5M liters), it feels like an enormous amount of water - and it is. But as it turns out, it's surprisingly easy to fill a pool when you start counting the water loss from leaks in commercial buildings.

We've crunched the numbers on a very conservative scenario - imagining that each commercially owned and operated building in the US has just 1 leaky faucet with a small leak. Half of those leaks are a small drip; the other half are a steady drip. And unlike real-life water leaks, we're assuming they'll leak at the same steady rate, not escalating and becoming catastrophic. 

Read on to find out just how much water loss these small leaks are responsible for!

(Curious to see how we arrived at these numbers? Skip to the bottom to see our data & calculations.)

How many swimming pools could you fill up in a single day?

In a single day, the water loss of 1,745,5150 gallons. That's enough to fill 2.64 Olympic-sized pools.

• A single faucet with a small drip in half of the US' commercial buildings loses 290,870 gallons of water, filling 0.44 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

• A single faucet with a steady drip in half of the US' commercial buildings loses 1,454,645 gallons of water, filling 2.20 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

How many swimming pools could the water leaks fill up in a week?

We know water leaks - especially small ones, which are less likely to be spotted in manual inspections - tend to last much longer than a day. It can be weeks and sometimes months until they're discovered - often when a fair amount of damage is done.

But if the same leaks (at the same size) lasted just a week, the water loss of 12,218,605 gallons means you could fill 18.50 Olympic-sized pools.

• A single faucet with a small drip in half of the US' commercial buildings loses 2,036,090 gallons of water, filling 3.08 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

• A single faucet with a steady drip in half of the US' commercial buildings loses 10,182,515 gallons of water, filling 15.42 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

What if the leaks lasted the duration of the 2024 Olympics & Paralympics?

The 2024 Olympics and Paralympics run for a total of 31 competition days.

If water the leaks lasted that long, you'd lose 54,110,965 gallons of water, which could fill over 81.93 Olympic-size swimming pools.

• A single faucet with a small drip in half of the US' commercial buildings loses 9,016,970 gallons of water, filling 16.35 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

• A single faucet with a steady drip in half of the US' commercial buildings loses 45,093,995 gallons of water, filling 68.28 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

What this means for commercial real estate owner-operators and facilities managers

Seeing water loss in Olympic pool-sized numbers is a reality check. Small water leaks are typically dismissed as being inconsequential - but they represent a high volume of water loss, and significant potential damage and downtime for the buildings they occur in.

Want to minimize water leak-related damage and downtime, but unsure where to start? Book a call with our team for a confidential conversation.

Data & calculations

• Olympic-sized swimming pool volume: 2.5M liters/ 660,430 gallons [source]
• Total number of commercially owned & operated buildings in the United States: 5.9M [source]
• Average daily water loss from a small drip from a faucet: 36 gallons annually [source]
• Average daily water loss from a steady drip from a faucet: 180 gallons annually [source]

CALCULATIONS
Daily water loss

Weekly water loss

Olympic & Paralympic Games-long water loss