Event Security & Staffing Calculator

How many security guards do you need per attendee?

There is no single legal ratio that applies everywhere. The number depends on how many people are there at once, whether alcohol is served, how late it runs, whether the crowd is standing or seated, and what has happened at similar events before. This calculator starts from ratios that organizers and security companies commonly use for first drafts, then adjusts them for your risk profile:

• Alcohol served: 1 security officer per 150 guests at low risk, 1 per 100 at medium, 1 per 75 at high.
• No alcohol: 1 per 300 at low risk, 1 per 200 at medium, 1 per 150 at high.
• Floor: never fewer than 2 security staff, and at least 1 on every entrance.

People planning in the UK usually check their numbers against the Purple Guide and the conditions on their premises license. In the US, NFPA 101 (the Life Safety Code) is a model code that applies only where a state or city adopts it. Where it applies, it calls for at least 1 trained crowd manager, plus 1 more per 250 occupants, at many assembly events, and the local authority having jurisdiction can change that ratio. Many US areas use the International Fire Code instead, so ask your local fire marshal which rules apply to you. Treat every number on this page as a place to start the conversation with your venue and security provider, not the answer.

Steward, security officer or door supervisor: what is the difference?

These roles overlap, and people often use the words loosely. The distinction matters because licensing and cost differ.

• Security officers and door supervisors search guests, refuse entry, deal with intoxicated or aggressive people and remove people when needed. In the UK, door supervision and security work needs a person who holds a Security Industry Authority (SIA) license. Check the rules where you are.
• Stewards manage the crowd: they direct people, watch for crushing and blocked exits, answer questions and report problems. They are crowd-facing but usually do not search or eject anyone.
• Supervisors run a team, hold the radio, and make decisions so each problem does not go to the promoter. This calculator allows 1 supervisor per 10 staff.

Security officers also manage the crowd, so the calculator counts them toward the crowd-facing total and only adds stewards for the gap, with at least 1 steward per entrance.

Entry throughput: how many scanners do you need?

Queues at the door are a staffing problem before they are a ticketing problem. The math is simple: divide the number of guests by the minutes over which most of them arrive to get the entry rate you need, then divide by how many people one scanner can admit each minute.

• No bag search: about 6–8 scans a minute per scanner. The calculator uses 7.
• With bag search: about 5 a minute, because the search, not the scan, sets the pace.

If your arrival window is short, you need more lanes, not faster people. For site-wide entry and egress planning, pair this with the festival capacity calculator. To plan for the people who will not turn up, use the no-show rate estimator.

Why tickets on the guest's phone matter

The slowest scans are the ones where the guest is still searching their email, waiting for a page to load on a weak signal or looking for a screenshot. Ask buyers to open or save their ticket before they join the queue, and say so in your pre-event email. With Ticket Fairy, door staff scan QR tickets with the Entry Fairy app on iOS or Android, and the check-in dashboard shows arrivals and entry rates per gate so you can move a scanner to the busiest entrance. See the ticket scanning app for how it works.

Brief door staff so they do not call the promoter

Once doors open, the promoter is dealing with a blocked toilet, a failed monitor and an artist with eleven guests. A door team that has to phone for every exception keeps guests waiting and pulls the promoter away from everything else. Before the queue forms, give the door team answers to these questions:

• Who approves exceptions? Name one person, not "the promoter", and give their number to the door supervisor only.
• Guest list: who is on it, how many plus-ones each name gets, and the cut-off time. "Actually there's four of us" needs a rule, not a phone call. The guest list cost calculator shows what those extra names cost you.
• A ticket does not scan: check the name on the ticket against ID, look the buyer up, and send unresolved cases to one box-office point instead of holding the lane. The box office software handles door sales and look-ups in one place.
• Refusals: what counts as too drunk, which items are banned and where refused guests go.

In Ticket Fairy, scanning staff sign in with their own team login under the Door Staff role, so you do not need to share one password with the whole door.

Staffing across shifts

The calculator sizes the team for peak attendance and adds 1 hour for setup and briefing. Longer events need breaks and relief. A simple rule: for events over 6 hours, add enough staff to rotate each post for a break, or plan two shifts with a handover briefing. Entry is busiest at the start and security is busiest at the end, when people leave, so you can move scanners to egress and stewarding after the arrival window closes.

Starting-point ratios used by this calculator

These ratios are directional planning starting points, not legal requirements.

Common staffing mistakes

1. Staffing for tickets sold instead of peak attendance. A festival selling 10,000 day tickets may have 7,000 on site at once, while a club with late walk-ups can peak above its advance sales. Plan for the busiest hour.
2. Forgetting the arrival curve. Two scanners can admit 800 people in 80 minutes, but not if everyone arrives in the 20 minutes after the headliner is announced. Short windows need more lanes.
3. Using stewards where you need licensed security. Searching, refusing and removing guests usually needs a licensed operative. Check before you fill those posts with volunteers.
4. No named person for exceptions. If the door team does not know who approves a guest-list dispute, every problem goes to the promoter's phone while the queue grows.
5. Ignoring egress. Everyone leaves in 15–30 minutes. Keep enough security and stewards on until the site is clear.
6. Treating the calculator as compliance. A number from a tool does not replace a written risk assessment, your license conditions or advice from a licensed security provider.