Average size of new commercial buildings in United States continues to grow – Today in Energy – U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

Source: Average size of new commercial buildings in United States continues to grow – Today in Energy – U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Increases in the size of commercial buildings have outpaced increases in the number of those buildings over the past decade, according to The U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA). The data is from EIA’s Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS), the only nationally representative data collection for building characteristics and energy use in commercial buildings. For CBECS, information about the commercial building stock in 2012 is now being released, and energy-use information is expected later this year. CBECS estimates that there were 5.6 million commercial buildings in the United States in 2012, totaling 87 billion ft² (8.1 billion m²) of floorspace. This represents a 14% increase in the number of buildings and a 21% increase in floorspace since 2003, the last year for which CBECS data is available. The average building size is around 15,500 ft² (1440 m²). However, buildings constructed in the 2000s (18% of the total building stock) average 19,000 ft² (1765 m²).