Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 574 source links · 435 official
How we know
No figure gets published without a source you can open. The build fails if one does.
Each entry began with its government's own page, in its own language where possible, quoted word for word and then translated. Press only fills gaps, usually for dates, and every source is badged Official or Press. Press alone never sets a national figure. Comparison sites and news maps helped us find documents, but no figure here rests on one.
All the totals on this site are computed from the data, not typed in by hand. Automated checks confirm that every figure has a quote and a link, every change has a source, and the board ends on the published figures. A government can appear here only if we've read an official statement from it.
This is an independent project, not an official source. Pages change, so check your local authority before relying on any number here.
National figure. A national authority publishes a household figure, and we read it.
24National, with limits. National, but narrower than the number suggests: a grab bag, food only, water only, one hazard only, an old or minor document, or a goal rather than an instruction.
33Non-government figure. The figure comes from a non-government body that the state points to.
1No number given. The government advises households but states no number of days.
7Local figures only. Only a state, province or city publishes a figure that we could find.
2
- Raised or lowered. We can show a dated figure before and after, from the same level of authority.
- First seen. The earliest dated evidence we could find. Earlier advice may well exist.
- Number added. A number replaces vaguer wording. There's no earlier figure to compare, so it isn't a raise.
- Restated. A page or campaign repeats the same number. This includes page dates that aren't announcements, which is why they never count as a change.
- Softened. A number was removed in favour of vaguer wording.
- Reworded. The wording changed, but we can't tell if a policy changed.
On Sweden: there's no three-day starting point, because we found no agency document giving 72 hours as its own figure, and its one week dates from 2020. On the Netherlands: the raise is dated from a press report of the minister's announcement, and ministers confirmed it in writing in May 2025. On Germany: the change from 14 to 10 falls between editions dated October 2015 and July 2019.
What we couldn't settle
On 2 Nov 2026 we re-read every quote against its source. 61 of 67 matched as text. The rest are listed here, along with anything else that's thin. Corrections with a source are the most useful thing anyone could send. Send one.
- No entry
- Malta, Thailand, Nigeria and Kenya. We couldn't read an official statement, so they aren't on the register. That says nothing about the advice there.
- Low confidence
- Hong Kong and Serbia. In each case we found no number in the pages we could read, which isn't proof that none exists.
- Read from an image
- Georgia, Greece, Malaysia, Pakistan and Romania. The wording is printed as a picture, so we transcribed it by eye. Check the original before quoting it.
- Re-check refused
- Cyprus. Read earlier, but refused the final re-check, and no archive copy was available.
Also open: Greece's and the UAE's official sites wouldn't open, so we read archive copies of their documents. India's disaster authority site wouldn't open either, so that entry rests on two minor national documents. Israel's Home Front Command site wouldn't open, so that entry rests on a 2022 flyer. The Philippines' civil defence and disaster council sites wouldn't open either, so that entry rests on government news outlets and a procurement document. Press credits Portugal's interior ministry with 72 hours, but the only official text we read says two or three days. Several document dates come from file details rather than the page itself. CDC figures were read through a summarising tool, so wherever the EPA covers the same ground, we use the EPA, which we read directly.
- Water per person per day. From 2 L in Germany to 3.8 L from FEMA, and 15 L in the Sphere humanitarian standard, which covers far more than drinking.
- Medicine reserve. From about 3 days to about a month, as Sweden suggests.
- Replacing home-filled water. From every 6 months to every few years, depending on the source.
- Altitude for a longer boil. The EPA says above 5,000 ft, and the CDC 6,500 ft.
- Canada's federal water figure. 2 L a day on one page, about 4 L on another.
Where no official figure exists, the planner uses one of ours and labels it. Change these freely.
- Hygiene water+2 L per personLower bound for basic hygiene in the Sphere handbook, applied by us
- Children's drinking water2 L under 13, 3 L from 13Follows Swiss adult and child planning, with our age split
- Pregnancy, nursing, illness+1 L a daySources say “more” without a number
- Bottle cleaning1 L per formula-fed baby a dayThe NHS gives a method, not a volume
- Pet weights8, 20, 35 and 4 kgTo turn a size label into water
- Pet water66 mL per kg a dayFrom a veterinary manual, used by us as a planning figure
- Toilet roll, wipes, bin bags, period productsSee the listSources list them with no amount, except Sphere's minimum for products
- Tins and dry food in the stress test300 kcal a tin, 3,500 kcal/kgRough label averages
- Phone power1 charge = 1 phone-dayUsed sparingly
- The three-step build-up3 days, 1 week, your targetNo government publishes this combined order, though fragments exist in Germany, Japan and the US
The board and globe use one hue, stepping from dim to bright. We measured it: lightness rises by a similar amount at each step, and even the dimmest step has at least 3:1 contrast against the dark background. Colour is never the only signal: figures are also written out, tiers have their own shapes, and every chart has a table or text alternative.
Your household numbers and ticks stay in this browser. Nothing is sent to a server, because there isn't one. A share link puts your household numbers in the URL, so only share it with people you'd tell. The site also works offline once loaded.