January 28th is International LEGO Day, and to celebrate, we’ve put together a list of LEGO facts for LEGO fans of all ages.
International LEGO day celebrates the enjoyment and popularity of the LEGO hobby around the world (see our list of other virtual LEGO fan events for 2023). 28th January 1958 is the date that Godtfred Kirk Christiansen submitted his patent for the very first plastic LEGO bricks, so it seems a fitting date to celebrate the LEGO hobby every year!
International LEGO Days in the future
International LEGO Day is always held on the 28th January each year, so the day of the week varies:
- Saturday, 28th January 2023
- Sunday, 28th January 2024
- Tuesday, 28th January 2025
- Wednesday, 28th January 2026
- Thursday, 28th January 2027
- Friday, 28th January 2028
- Sunday, 28th January 2029
- Monday, 28th January 2030
Our LEGO facts list
- LEGO produce around 60 billion LEGO bricks each year.
- Six 2×4 LEGO bricks can be connected in more than 915 million combinations.
- LEGO have factories in Denmark, the original home country of LEGO, as well as Mexico, China, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Vietnam.
- The name “LEGO” comes from two Danish words, “leg” and “godt”, meaning “play well”.
- Around 340 million LEGO minifigures are produced every year!
- There are around 4 billion LEGO minifigures in the world – over half of the world’s population.
- The plastic LEGO brick was first patented in 1958 (and in 1961 in the USA).
- 30 LEGO sets are sold every second in the run up to Christmas! The rest of the year, they sell around 7 or 8 sets per second.
- There are 86 LEGO bricks per person in the world.
- LEGO was founded by Ole Kirk Christiansen in 1932. The founder’s family still own the company!
- LEGO manufacturer around 20 billion elements (bricks and other parts) in their factory in Billund. This is approximately 2 million elements every hour.
- The first LEGO theme park, LEGOLAND, opened in Billund, Denmark, in 1968.
- Over 318 million tyres per year are made – 870,000 per day! LEGO is the world’s largest tyre manufacturer.
- A single LEGO brick can support the weight of 375,000 other LEGO bricks on top before it is destroyed – this would be a tower of over 2.15 miles! One brick can withstand 4240 Newtons of force (950+ pounds!).
- LEGO first licensed Star Wars in 1999 – which also included the first LEGO minifigure person of colour.
- Around 70 – 80% of LEGO minifigures are male. LEGO is slowly adding more diversity in their figures.
- LEGO fans can submit their models to LEGO Ideas, and if it reaches 10,000 votes it has the chance to become an official LEGO set.
- Only 18 elements in every million made by LEGO are rejected: parts must be within 2/1000ths of a mm to pass!
- LEGO’s motto is “only the best is good enough”.
- LEGO is the largest toy company in the world, passing Hasbro and Mattel (owner of Barbie) in 2015.
- LEGO’s values mean they don’t produce modern warfare sets, and they have even cancelled set releases such as the LEGO Technic Osprey set due to its connection with the military. They do, of course, produce some historical weapons for their Western and Ninjago themes, and futuristic weapons for Star Wars and other themes.
- The largest LEGO sets are currently:
- LEGO Art World Map – 11,695 pieces
- LEGO Eiffel Tower – 10001 pieces
- LEGO Titanic – 9,090 pieces
- LEGO Colosseum – 9,036 pieces
- UCS LEGO StarWars™ Millennium Falcon™ – 7,541 pieces
- LEGO Star Wars UCS AT-AT Walker – 6,785 pieces
- LEGO Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle – 6,020 pieces
- LEGO Creator Taj Mahal – 5,923 pieces
- LEGO Real Madrid – Santiago Bernabéu Stadium – 5876 pieces
- LEGO Ninjago City Gardens – 5,686 pieces
- LEGO Harry Potter Diagon Alley – 5,554 pieces
- LEGO Camp Nou – FC Barcelona – 5,508 pieces
As well as International LEGO Day, LEGO themselves hold an annual LEGO Build Day on December 27th each year – a great chance to finish building those presents!
Last updated 9th January 2023.
