How many people have walked on the Moon?
Guess before you scroll — the answer is below
The answer
12 people
Twelve people have walked on the Moon, all between 1969 and 1972, all American, all men. Nobody has been back in over fifty years — more people have summited Everest in a single morning than have ever walked on another world.
How to get close to this number
Multiply landings by crew. This site's companion question gives six successful landings, and each carried two people to the surface while a third stayed in orbit. Six times two is the answer, and decomposing by mission structure is far more reliable than trying to recall a list of names.
The orbital crew member is the detail that catches people. Three astronauts flew each mission and only two descended, so the number who reached the Moon is half again larger than the number who walked on it. A question about walking on the surface is narrower than a question about going there.
The comparison in the explanation is the one that lands: more people have summited Everest in a single morning than have ever walked on another world. Fifty years after the last landing, the count has not moved — which makes this one of the very few figures on this site that has been frozen for half a century and may yet change within a decade.
Where this number comes from
| Source | NASA |
|---|---|
| Figure refers to | 2024 |
| Last checked | |
| Unit | people |
Numbers move. If this one has drifted from its source, let us know.
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