What size is the average penis?
We will present you with facts from all the scientific studies done on penis size so that once you have finished reading this article, you will feel content that you have the most accurate answer to the question. And perhaps you will be reassured about your own size or that of your partner's penis.
Published findings are often introduced with background information on men's widespread anxieties about whether or not their penises are big enough, and if sexual partners are going to be satisfied. So what is the truth?
Given the ubiquity of free, easily accessible internet pornography, and the rise in aggressive marketing by companies promising a bigger penis through the use of extenders and enlargers, it is easy to see why the truth about male genital length and girth might have become obscured.
Perhaps it is no surprise, then, that researchers consistently find that men have heightened anxieties about their man hoods.
Fast facts on the average penis size
Here are some key points about the average penis size. More detail and supporting information is in the main article.
- While 85 percent of women may be satisfied with the size and proportion of their partner's penis, men are less sure of themselves.
- As much as 45 percent of men believe they have a small penis.
- Across studies, flaccid length average from 7 to 10 centimeters (2.8 to 3.9 inches).
- Flaccid circumference/girth average from 9 to 10 centimeters (3.5 to 3.9 inches).
- Erect lengths average from 12 to 16 centimeters (4.7 to 6.3 inches).
- Erect circumference is around 12 centimeters (4.7 inches).
When is penis size too small?
Perhaps the best gauge of what is considered to be a small penis is given by the threshold used by doctors for when penile augmentation may be considered.
Researchers publishing in the Journal of Urology studied the penis sizes of 80 "physically normal" men, measuring penile dimensions before and after drug-induced erections.
After finding average sizes, they concluded:
"Only men with a flaccid length of less than 4 centimeters [1.6 inches],
or a stretched or erect length of less than 7.5 centimeters [3 inches]
should be considered candidates for penile lengthening."
What is 'normal' or average penis size?
In the Journal of Urology study, researchers found the following among the group of 80 men:- An average penis size of 8.8 cm (3.5 inches) when flaccid
- An average penis size of 12.9 cm (5.1 inches) when erect.
The finding on how much the penis length can 'grow' - on whether you are a 'shower' or a 'grower' - was further supported by a study of 200 Turkish men, in which "flaccid length had little importance in determining erect penile length."
The research to determine average penis size includes a study published in January 2014 that examined over 1,600 American men, although it did not take independent physical measurements.
Instead the study relied on the men's own measurements of penis size. The reports may be considered fairly reliable, however, since the men were to be given condoms to match their self-reported measurements, meaning that any inaccuracy would have resulted in ill-fitting prophylactics.
This study found the average penis size to be as follows:
- Average size for an erect penis is 14.2 cm (5.6 inches)
- Average circumference of an erect penis is 12.2 cm (4.8 inches).
Penis size - women seem to care less about it than men4-6
Male concern about whether penile size lives up to the desires of females seems to be largely misplaced. And unfounded worries about inadequacy are not helped by the fact that a man's own view of his penis automatically makes it look smaller to him than to someone else.Looking down at the penis from above makes it appear smaller, compared with how it looks straight on, or from the side.
Seeing one's own penis from this perspective and perhaps comparing it with other men's appendages from a different perspective, may, therefore, reinforce false ideas of penis size. But do women have a more reliable perception?
One study, published in the British Journal of Urology International, suggested that while the majority of women, some 85 percent, were satisfied with the size and proportion of their partner's penis, men were less sure of themselves.
Almost half of men in the study (45 percent) believed they had a small penis, yet the researchers reported that small penis size was actually rare.
Some 170 women answered questionnaires in another study, which found that while they attached some importance to penis size, it was only of "substantial" importance to a "clear minority" of the women.
While most of men's worries about penis size centre on the length, women are more interested in width, according to one study.
The study of 50 sexually active undergraduate women reported that penis width was more important to sexual satisfaction than penis length - for a big majority, for 45 of the women.
Women don't want men with big penises7
A study published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE in November 2015 took the novel approach of asking women to show their penis size preferences with the use of 3D printed models of 33 different dimensions.The sizes had been printed across a range from 4 inches to 8.5 inches in length, and from 2.5 inches to 7.0 inches in circumference, based on previous studies giving an average American penis size when erect of 6 inches (15.2 cm) long with a girth of 5 inches (12.7 cm).
The 3D-printed shafts were in blue plastic so as not to suggest any particular race that might prejudice the women's ideas of average size.
The 75 women indicating size preferences from the 33 blue models chose slightly differently depending on the kind of relationship they were thinking about (and in any case showed they desired a size that turned out to be only slightly above the averages found across studies):
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