How many cups of coffee does the US drink each day?

Question

The country has about 330 million people. Suppose roughly two out of three adults drink coffee, and a coffee drinker averages about two cups a day. Solve in your head. Estimate how many cups of coffee are consumed in the US per day. Aim: under 45 seconds.

Accepted Answer

Count the drinkers, then their cups. - Drinkers: 	frac{2}{3} 	imes 330 	ext{ million} = 220 million. - Cups: 220 	ext{ million} 	imes 2 = 440 million. So around 400 million cups a day (range 300–500 million as you flex the fractions). Over a year that is on the order of 150 billion cups. Takeaway. Break "national consumption" into three independent knobs, population, the fraction who participate, and the rate per participant. Each is a number you can defend on its own, and multiplying them keeps any single wrong guess from wrecking the whole estimate.

How many cups of coffee does the US drink each day?

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