3QUESTION 3 OF 3
Answer & explanation
The official answer, with Fermi’s reasoning step by step.
Answer & explanation
Official answer
81,001
elevators
How to estimate it
Fermi’s official “Napkin math”
Start with New York's 8.5 million people. How many does a single elevator serve? Between residents and workers in the tall buildings, maybe 100.
- NYC people
- 8,500,000
- People per elevator
- ÷ 100
- 8.5M ÷ 100
- ≈ 85,000
Rounded assumptions may give a slightly different estimate. The official answer above is the game’s reference value.
Source calculation & reference
- Active elevators on the NYC Buildings roll
- 81,001
- Manhattan's share of those
- 42,470
- All conveying devices (adds escalators, dumbwaiters, lifts)
- 93,225
Reference cited by Fermi: NYC Open Data, DOB NOW Elevator Safety Compliance (active devices, August 2026)
How close was your guess?
Your comparison will appear here.
Compare by ratio: divide the larger number by the smaller one. The closer to 1×, the better.