{"id":13999,"date":"2026-06-28T02:21:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T00:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exyt.es\/blog\/what-is-occupancy-capacity-and-how-is-it-calculated\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T22:24:29","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T21:24:29","slug":"occupancy-capacity-calculated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exyt.es\/en\/blog\/occupancy-capacity-calculated\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Occupancy Capacity and How Is It Calculated?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Capacity is the maximum number of people who can be safely in a space at the same time. Knowing the capacity of a venue, hall, or event is not a decision made by the organizer, but is regulated by fire safety regulations.<\/p>\n

What is capacity at an event, concert, venue, or conference?<\/h2>\n

Capacity is the maximum number of people a space can hold, calculated to ensure that everyone can evacuate safely in case of an emergency.\u00a0This applies to both permanent establishments (bars, shops, offices) and temporary events (concerts, festivals, fairs).<\/p>\n

Besides calculating it, you need to make sure it isn\u2019t exceeded while the event is running or the venue is open. That\u2019s what an event capacity control system<\/a> is for.<\/p>\n

How is capacity calculated?<\/h2>\n

Capacity is calculated by dividing the usable area of \u200b\u200bthe space by the occupancy density established by regulations according to the use of the premises.\u00a0The basic formula for calculating occupancy capacity is:<\/p>\n

\n
\n
Occupancy Capacity = Usable Area (m\u00b2) \u00f7 Occupancy Density (m\u00b2\/person)\r\n<\/strong><\/code><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
In Spain, the reference regulations are the Technical Building Code of The Building Code, Basic Document on Fire Safety (CTE DB-SI), in its Table 2.1 of Section SI 3. This is the law of capacity control at events<\/a> that applies throughout the national territory, and assigns a different occupancy density according to the use of the space:<\/p>\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Space Type<\/th>\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Public seated areas<\/td>\n0.5 – 1.5 m\u00b2\/person<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Discos<\/td>\n0.5 m\u00b2\/person<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Shops (sales areas)<\/td>\n2 – 5 m\u00b2\/person<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Offices (public areas)<\/td>\n2 m\u00b2\/person<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Classrooms<\/td>\n1.5 m\u00b2\/person<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n
Practical example: how to calculate the capacity of a space<\/h3>\n
A 100 m\u00b2 space for standing audiences (such as a concert area) with a density of 0.25 m\u00b2\/person:<\/p>\n
\n
\n
Capacity = 100 m\u00b2 \u00f7 0.25 m\u00b2\/person = 400 people \r\n\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Capacity is the maximum number of people who can be safely in a space at the same time. Knowing the capacity of a venue, hall, or event is not a decision made by the organizer, but is regulated by fire safety regulations. What is capacity at an event, concert, venue, or conference? Capacity is the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":13018,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[110,118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-capacity-control","category-capacity-control-at-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exyt.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exyt.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exyt.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exyt.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exyt.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13999"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/exyt.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18594,"href":"https:\/\/exyt.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13999\/revisions\/18594"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exyt.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exyt.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exyt.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exyt.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}