How Much Water Should I Store Per Person Per Day?

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THE SHORT ANSWER

Store 1 gallon of water per person per day. That is the US figure from Ready.gov and the CDC, and it covers drinking plus basic sanitation. The European numbers that look smaller — 3 litres in Sweden, 2 litres in Germany — are not smaller plans; they count only drinking and cooking, with hygiene left out of the line. For a family of four, the US gallon works out to 12 gallons for 3 days and 56 gallons for two weeks, before extras like heat, pets, and water to rehydrate freeze-dried food.

Ask five governments how much water to store and you get answers that seem to argue with each other: a gallon, three litres, two litres. They are not arguing. They are counting different buckets. The American gallon bundles drinking, cooking, and a minimal wash into one number. The European guides publish the drinking line on its own and handle washing somewhere else, if at all. Once you know what each number includes, they land surprisingly close together — and the differences that remain are about how many days each government asks you to cover, not how thirsty it thinks you are.

Why the official numbers look like they conflict

The US gallon is the most generous daily figure because it is the only one paying for sanitation. Sweden’s 3 litres and the UK’s 3 litres cover drinking and cooking. Germany’s 2 litres is the drinks line from its 10-day list — the same list our family food quantities page works through — and it builds in about half a litre of that for cooking.

Guide	Per person, per day	What it counts	Days asked for
US — Ready.gov / CDC	1 gallon (about 3.8 L)	Drinking + sanitation	At least 3; aim for 14
Sweden — Civil Defence Agency	3 litres (about 0.8 gal)	Drinking + cooking	At least 7
UK — Be Ready (Oct 2026)	3 litres (about 0.8 gal)	Drinking only	3
Germany — BBK	2 litres (about 0.5 gal)	Drinks, incl. cooking share	10 (start with 3)

Run Sweden’s figure for the week it actually asks for: 3 litres a day for four people over 7 days is 84 litres, about 22 gallons — for drinking and cooking alone, with nothing yet stored for washing hands or brushing teeth. The US plan for the same week is 28 gallons all-in. Two honest systems, two different ledgers, totals within a few gallons of each other. Germany’s lower daily line stretches over more days: 2 litres a day for four people over its 10 days is 80 litres of drinks, about 21 gallons, before any hygiene water at all.

The math for your house, on the US gallon

For an American household the gallon is still the easiest planning number, because it is the only one that arrives with the hygiene share already inside it. Multiply people by days, then weigh what you just promised yourself — water is heavy, and the weight is what decides where it can live.

Duration	Per person	Family of four	Weight for four
3 days	3 gal	12 gal	About 100 lb
1 week	7 gal	28 gal	About 234 lb
2 weeks	14 gal	56 gal	About 467 lb

That 467 pounds is why our two-week breakdown for a family of four spends so much time on placement: a full two-week store is not a closet afterthought, it is a quarter-ton that wants a ground floor, a spread-out footprint, or a drum that gets filled where it will sit and never moved again.

What the gallon does not cover

The gallon is a floor, and three common households blow straight through it. In very hot weather, Ready.gov says water needs can double — a two-week store for four in a heat wave is 112 gallons at the doubled rate, not 56. Freeze-dried food drinks from the same store: rehydrating it adds roughly 14 gallons across two weeks for a family of four, a line most charts leave out entirely and the two-week breakdown itemizes. Pets are extra too — a dog needs roughly an ounce of water per pound of body weight a day, so a 50-pound dog adds about 5 to 6 gallons over two weeks. What the gallon never claimed to cover is normal life: showers, laundry, and flushing a toilet at a gallon and a half a pull are a separate, non-drinking supply — the bathtub and the pool live in that ledger, not this one.

Containers that match the totals

For the 12-to-28-gallon stage: the Saratoga Farms 5-Gallon Stackable containers — five gallons at a time is a weight one person can actually carry (about 42 lb full), and the stackable shape is what makes a closet store possible in an apartment. Our water storage containers comparison runs the finished cost per gallon on all three options here.

For the full 56 gallons: the Augason Farms 55-Gallon Water Storage Kit — one drum is essentially the two-week family target in a single container, filled in place and left alone. Add one 5-gallon jug on top and the 56 is covered with a portable reserve the drum can never be.

For the storm you get warning of: the waterBOB bathtub bladder — it holds a bathtub’s worth of clean water from the tap you already have, but only if it is in the house before the warning comes. It is the cheapest gallon on this page and the only one that cannot help you in a no-notice outage.

Whatever container holds it, water you cannot trust is a second problem, not storage: our gravity filter comparison covers the Berkey, ProOne, and Alexapure options for making questionable water drinkable.

Prices last checked: November 1, 2026. We do not print a price in these pick cards — each link shows the live price.

Questions people also ask

Does hot weather really double the amount?

Yes — Ready.gov states plainly that water needs can double in very hot temperatures, and the CDC likewise tells households in hot climates to store more. A family of four planning two weeks through a southern summer should run the math at 2 gallons per person per day — 112 gallons — or accept that the 56-gallon store is a one-week store at the summer rate.

Is Germany’s 2 litres enough if that is all I store?

Germany’s 2 litres is a drinks line, not a household total. It covers drinking and a cooking share; it was never meant to also wash hands, brush teeth, or clean a wound. A household that stored only 2 litres per person per day would be short on hygiene within the first day. The US gallon exists precisely because it folds that share in.

How much water does a dog need in an emergency?

A dog needs roughly an ounce of water per pound of body weight per day — about 50 ounces, or 0.4 gallons, for a 50-pound dog. Over two weeks that is 5 to 6 gallons on top of the people’s 56. Cats and small dogs add far less, but they add something, and pet water is the line most often missing from a store that otherwise adds up.

FAQ

How much water should one person store for two weeks?

14 gallons at the US rate of 1 gallon per person per day. That weighs about 117 lb, which is why most single-person two-week stores end up split across several 5-gallon containers rather than in one drum.

How long does stored tap water keep?

Water you fill yourself keeps for six months, then rotate it — the CDC and Ready.gov interval, in a clean food-grade container. Our page on how long you can store tap water covers treatment, bleach math by container size, and the rotation schedule in full.

Does the gallon per day include cooking freeze-dried food?

Only partly, and that gap is the most common under-count. The gallon carries a modest food-preparation share; a shelf that leans on freeze-dried meals needs the rehydration water added on top — about 14 extra gallons for a family of four over two weeks.