We Spend 90 Percent of Our Time Indoors

Given the intense interest in the architectural community on health and wellness inside buildings, and in the related WELL building standard, you've probably heard someone tell you recently that we spend 90 percent of our time indoors. Usually, this is followed by some assertion that we need to make our products, materials and interior spaces healthier. (Is anyone reminding us to get outside a little more often?)

I have been hearing this statistic so much that I started to wonder if it was an urban legend. It's not!

The Study behind the 90 Percent Statistic

The best reference for the statistic appears to be The National Human Activity Pattern Survey (NHAPS): A Resource for Assessing Exposure to Environmental Pollutants, by Neil Klepeis and others, and published by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 2001.

Please select this link to read the complete blog post from Building Green.