When you think about the phrase “a lot of LEGO,” you probably think of a huge construction or a brick-strewn floor upon which you are forced to walk. But the reality is that even massive collections of LEGO only scratch the surface of how much LEGO product exists in the world today.
First off, brace yourself: LEGO has produced over 600 billion bricks since their inception. To put that into perspective, that’s about 86 bricks for every person on the planet (but thank goodness you have way more than your share)! If you were to line up all those bricks end-to-end, they would circle the Earth more than 18 times. Now that’s a lot of interlocking fun!
While we’re rolling out numbers, let’s talk about tires. You probably already know that LEGO manufactures more tires than any other company in the world. LEGO produces around 318 million tires a year. They have been producing tires since 1962, although, of course, not in that quantity. It is estimated that LEGO has manufactured over 6 billion tires in its history. Of course, LEGO tires, like all LEGO pieces, come in different sizes, but it is estimated that the rubber used to make 6 billion LEGO tires is enough to fill 5 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Don’t worry; we haven’t forgotten about the minifigs. LEGO produces 4 billion minifigures each year, including minifigures in sets, collectible series minifigs, and customizable minifigs you design and build yourself at LEGO stores. If you stacked up 4 billion LEGO minifigures, they would be over 110 miles tall, which means they would reach twice farther from us than the International Space Station. Another way to think about those 4 billion minifigures is to compare them to the number of humans produced each year: about 140 million babies are born each year, world-wide. And if you’re curious, 140 million newborn babies, end-to-end, would stretch about 43,000 miles, based on the length of an average newborn baby.
So, next time you’re feeling covetous of someone else’s collection, or insecure about the relative size of your own collection, remember that no one personal collection can even scratch the surface of the sheer, mind-boggling volume of LEGO product manufactured each year. However, since we do sell LEGO for a living, we won’t discourage you from trying to own it all!