Occupant Load, Egress & Accessibility Screening

Occupant load from floor areas and user-entered area-per-occupant factors; egress capacity width from a user-entered width per occupant; number of exits from user-entered occupant-load thresholds; ramp running slope against 1:12. Not a code determination.

Open the tool

Method

code-occupancy 1.1

Engine

1.1.0

Output status

Preliminary - review required

Review

Awaiting review

Formulas

Space load = floor area / area per occupant (factor entered by the user from the adopted code, e.g. IBC Section 1004)
Round up per space (default): total = sum of ceil(space load); otherwise total = ceil(sum of space loads)
Egress capacity width = total occupants x width per occupant (entered, e.g. from IBC Section 1005), stairways and other components separately
Exits = the user threshold row with the largest starting load at or below the total (thresholds entered, e.g. from IBC Section 1006)
Ramp: running slope compared with 1:12 (2010 ADA Standards 405.2), reusing geometry-conversion/1.0

Conventions

Area and area per occupant are in the same unit (ft² or m²).
Width per occupant is in inches (or mm) per occupant.
Every factor carries the source the user gave.

Limits - what it will not do

This is not a code determination: no code table is built in and no requirement is checked except the arithmetic on the entered factors.
Mixed-use rules, minimum widths, exit separation, travel distance, common path, single-exit spaces and stories are not checked.
Accessibility: ramp running slope only. Cross slope, rise, landings, handrails and every other accessibility requirement are not checked.

Who must review it

Licensed architect or code consultant: confirm the method against the adopted building code
Building official (AHJ): occupant loads, egress and accessibility for the project

Worked example

Inputs Spaces 5,000 ft² / 100, 1,210 ft² / 15, 310 ft² / 7; 0.3 and 0.2 in per occupant; thresholds from 1: 1, from 50: 2, from 501: 3; ramp 30 in over 30 ft

Expected 176 occupants rounded per space (175 rounded once); 52.8 in stairways, 35.2 in other components; 2 exits; ramp 1:12, within

Checked by an automated test on every change.

Sources

Occupant load, egress width and exit count arithmetic - Method sheet code-occupancy/1.0, read 2026-10-16
Occupant load = floor area / area per occupant, per space, rounded up per space when the code requires it; egress width = occupants x width per occupant; exits from the user-entered thresholds. Every factor is entered by the user from the adopted code.
2021 International Building Code, Chapter 10 Means of Egress (free read-only text) - International Code Council, read 2026-10-16
Section 1004 (occupant load), Section 1005 (egress width) and Section 1006 (number of exits). Read the factor for the space at its source; no value from the code is reproduced in this tool. Verify the edition the jurisdiction has adopted and its local amendments.
2024 International Building Code, Chapter 10 Means of Egress (free read-only text) - International Code Council, read 2026-10-16
The 2024 edition of the same chapter, for jurisdictions that have adopted it.
ADA Accessibility Standards, 405 Ramps - U.S. Access Board, read 2026-10-16
The Access Board publication of the 2010 ADA Standards, at section 405 Ramps (405.2 Slope). The ramp check covers running slope only.
2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design, 405.2 Slope - U.S. Department of Justice, read 2026-10-16
Ramp runs shall have a running slope not steeper than 1:12. Used here as a reference check of one provision only, not a code compliance determination.