How much is a billion? Simply & clearly explained

Imagining how much a billion is is difficult for many people. This is because very large numbers challenge our brains. Nevertheless, you can use simple examples to make the number more vivid.

This way you can imagine how much a billion is

You can use different examples to explain how much a billion is. In this way, it is possible to make the huge number more vivid for the human brain. This can be particularly helpful when, for example, the news is again about sums of money in the billions.

• A billion is a 1 with nine zeros. Also: 1.000.000.000.

• A billion is a thousand times a million. So: 1,000 x 1,000,000.

• To get a better idea of the difference between a million and a billion, the example with seconds can help. One million seconds is 11 days. A billion seconds, on the other hand, is 31.7 years.

• If you stacked a billion sheets of paper neatly on top of each other, this tower would be 297,000 kilometres high. With that distance, you could almost reach the moon from Earth.