How do you calculate the capacity of a hall?

Hall capacity: how to calculate it

Calculating your hall capacity is the first step to advertising your school facilities for hire and maximising your income – so how do you calculate the capacity of a hall? 

Hall capacity: how to calculate it 

When calculating the capacity of a hall, there are a number of factors you’ll need to consider. These include: 

Hall dimensions: how big your hall is will determine how many people can safely use it, sitting or standing and, as such, gaining accurate measurements of the width & length in metres will help you to understand this. Alongside standard measurements, it’s a good idea to consider useable space when using things like stages, if they’re available in your hall as a stage will make the usable space somewhat smaller. 

Fire doors and exits: it’s also important to consider how many fire doors and exits there are, the placement of those doors and exits, and the width of those doors, as well as whether they open inwards or outwards as inward opening doors will reduce the size of the space slightly. 

Hall usage: the intended use of the hall will also be a deciding factor in it’s overall capacity as someone playing sports, for example, will need more room for their intended activity than someone simply standing to enjoy a show. 

Maximum number of occupants: occupant capacity will be based on the overall floor size by the occupancy factor. For example (metres squared per person) – an assembly hall or dance hall will be 0.5, a sports hall will be 5.0, and a conference room or meeting room will be 1.0. 

Crucial to note is that capacities are calculated on what is considered to be safe for the occupants, not only during use, but also in the event of a fire and/or evacuation; the overall capacity of a hall intended to ensure – should swift evacuation be necessary – occupants have enough space and time to exit the hall in a calm and considered manner. 

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