Santa’s Deliveries by the Numbers

Posted on December 21, 2018

No matter how efficient your same-day delivery in New England is, there always seems to be one delivery man who is slightly more efficient. That man is Santa Claus. While he may not be all that helpful with deliveries for 364 days of the year, come Christmas Time, there’s no harder worker than Old St. Nick. Given the timespan and sheer number of deliveries, many people question the plausibility of Santa’s travels. For those of you out there wondering how he does it, we mapped it all out for you.

How Many Presents?

The first step to understanding Santa’s delivery method is knowing how many packages he’s delivering. Not everybody in the world celebrates Christmas. However, it is the most celebrated holiday in the world. Even many families who do not consider themselves religious or Christian celebrate Christmas for the cultural significance it has come to hold in modern society. It’s estimated that 2 billion people celebrate Christmas each year. Assuming Santa gives one present a piece (ignoring the naughty/nice factor), that is 2 billion presents to deliver.

How Far is the Journey?

The next step in the equation is the distance traveled. The world is a total 196.1 billion square miles. Luckily for Santa, not all the area is land. Once you subtract the oceans, there is only 57308738 sq. miles of land. To narrow that down a bit more, much of the world’s area is uninhabitable by people. That leaves 24642757 sq. miles that Santa has to deliver presents across. It may be a little far for your same-day delivery in New England, but it’s no trouble for Santa.

How Long Does He Have?

Now, here comes the tricky part. Because the world experiences different times of day simultaneously, you need to look at geography to figure out the time span. Sunset in Tokyo, Japan falls at 4:33 pm on Christmas Eve. Sunrise in Honolulu, Hawaii on Christmas Day doesn’t occur until 7:06 am. Due to the time zones, this gives Santa a full 28 hours and 23 minutes to deliver presents.

How Does He Do It?

Now it comes time to divide to figure out approximately how Santa does his job. First, you need to divide the number of presents by the time span: (2 billion people/1703 mins) resulting in 1174398.12096 people/minute. Next, you need to divide the sq. miles by time limit (24642757 sq. miles/1703 mins) bringing us to 14470.2037581 sq. miles/minute. So, Santa has to deliver 1174398.12 packages across 14470.2 sq. miles every minute in order to finish his delivery route.

So there you have it. You no longer have to wonder how Santa does it. He’s merely a magical delivery man on a tight schedule. For packages that Santa didn’t make himself, talk to Fleet Couriers for same-day delivery in New England. Contact Fleet at 800-734-9309 or visit us online.