The Average Erect Penis Size is Bigger Than Five Inches

Don't believe every study that you read online
Don't believe every study that you read online

Introduction
Based on my experiences when surfing this website, answering several penis size questions, and browsing the World Wide Web in general, I often notice people post that the average adult male erect penis size is within the 5-inch range. The results often range from 5.1 to 5.5 inches depending on the study in question. If the results of such studies are true, then the average adult male's penis length is comparable to the length of a typical ink pen or 11.3 ounce soda can. Despite the fact that many people on the internet accept as truth that the average adult penis size is within the 5-inch range, I always disagreed with such a claim and always assumed the average penis size to be bigger. This myTake serves as an explanation for why I believe that adult men have bigger penises on average and serves as a response to people that replied to me in the past, believing that because I am female, I have my measurements wrong. This myTake would critique the supposed largest penis-size study on the internet and would include some personal opinions on penis size based on my own experiences. Perhaps it can answer questions that some guys typically ask on this site regarding if their penis is too small as well.

The Known Data
According to a study published by BJU International, search of the medical literature revealed 17 studies with up to 15,521 males who underwent penis size measurements by health professionals using a standard procedure. The nomograms revealed that the average length of a flaccid penis was 3.6 inches, the average length of a flaccid stretched penis was 5.2 inches, and the average length of an erect penis was 5.1 inches. The average flaccid girth was 3.66 inches, and the average erect girth was 4.5 inches. As a result, many people on the internet tend to accept as truth that the average penis length and girth is within the 5-inch and 4-inch range respectively. However, when used as a reference to determine the average penis size, I find the study to be flawed for reasons based on non-representative sample sizes and poor reasoning.

Flaws in the Data
According to the results of the study, despite the fact that the study included 15,521 men who underwent penis size measurements, the medical professionals that conducted the studies only measured the erect length of 692 men, or merely 4.4% of the men involved with the study. Because the medical professionals only measured 4.4% of the sample size, the results may not represent the erect penis sizes of the men that were not measured. Additionally, the study measured the erect girth of only 381 men, or a mere 2.4% of the entire sample size, which is a number even less than the sample size of the erect length measurements. When combining both erect length and erect girth data, the medical professionals only measured 6.9% of all men involved in the study. The problem with this data is that, unbeknownst to the public, the remaining 14,448 men that did not undergo erect penis measurement could be larger than the sample size concluded. Thus, data in this study concluding that the erect length being 5.1 inches and erect girth being 4.5 inches is dubious and unreliable until medical professionals obtain more data.

Furthermore, the known methods used to collect average penis size data potentially contravenes the average penis sized data included in the study. For example, should a man visit a urologist for the purpose of determining whether he qualifies for penis enlargement surgery, the doctors do not measure erect penis length. Instead, they use another method known as stretched penis length. Stretched penis length is a penis size measurement taken by a doctor by simply pulling or "stretching" the flaccid penis, making it appear longer. The doctor then compares the result to the known penis size average. If the man's size is at least two inches shorter than the average size, the doctor then considers the man eligible for penis enlargement surgery. Interestingly, unlike the erect penis size samples, the stretched penis length sample size in this study is much more wide-reaching, with a 14,160 men measured out of 15,521 total men involved with the study, or 91.2%. The 91.2% sample size confirms that stretched penis length is the preferred method medical professionals use to gather data regarding average penis size, and not erect penis length.

Knowing this information leads to possibly conflicting data. Knowing that stretched penis length is simply obtained by stretching the flaccid penis and then measuring, the study concluded that the average stretched penis length is 5.2 inches, which is only a 1.6-inch increase from the average flaccid sized penis of 3.6 inches. The problem with this method of obtaining penis size data is that a penis tends to grow bigger when erect than stretched. The average penis grows approximately 3 inches from its flaccid state to its erect state, as opposed to the 1.6 inches concluded in the study. The longer a penis tends to grow when erecting often depends on the flaccid size. For example, a penis size that is 3 inches when flaccid is more likely to grow significantly larger when erect, usually around 3 inches bigger. However, a 7-inch flaccid penis, no matter how rare that size might be, would be lucky even to grow at all when erecting, or possibly a quarter inch at most. Additionally, the study concluded that the average erect penis length is 5.1 inches, which is smaller than the average stretched length. When considering that the erect penis length is somehow smaller than the stretched penis length and that penises tend to grow significantly larger than 1.6 inches when erect, this would mean that the erect penises of the men sampled in the study were either not fully erect when measured or were smaller compared to the stretched penis length sample size. If true, then the average penis size results are generally unreliable and could be easily misinterpreted.


The True Average Penis Size
Based on the reliable data that the study did collect however, I conjecture that the real average erect penis size is extremely likely to be bigger than what is often assumed on the internet. To explain why, note that the study collected data on 10,704 (68.9%) flaccid penis lengths, 9,407 (60.6%) flaccid penis girth, and 14,160 (91.2%) stretched penis lengths. Considering that the majority of the men's flaccid length, flaccid girth, and stretched penis length was measured, these results are the most reliable. If the average flaccid penis length is 3.6 inches using the fairly reliable sample size of 68.9% and the average flaccid penis girth is 3.66 inches using the also fairly reliable sample size of 60.6%, then it makes sense that the average length that a penis grows when erect could determine the true average size. Considering that the average penis tends to grow about 3 inches longer when erect from its flaccid state, I surmise that the real average erect penis length is extremely likely to be a fairly reliable 6.6 inches instead of 5.1 inches. This too is reasonable because when comparing the extremely reliable (91.2%) stretched penis length result of 5.2 inches to the fairly reliable (68.9%) flaccid length result of 3.6 inches, one can conclude that on average, the most that a medical professional can get out of stretching the flaccid penis would be 1.6 inches.

Knowing that the average flaccid penis gets bigger than 1.6 inches on average when erect, it makes little sense for the erect penis length to be shorter than the stretched length. The erect girth, even though based on an unreliable sample of a measly 2.4%, was 4.5 inches, a 0.84-inch increase from its flaccid state of 3.66 inches. This means that one can conclude that, on average, penises increase about a little less than an inch in girth when erect. Its girth, based on what I gathered from this study, tends to grow approximately a little bit less than an inch (0.84 inches). Thus, one can conclude that average erect penis girth is likely to be 5.3 inches instead of 4.5 should medical professionals use a larger sample size. The reason is because, if they concluded from a tiny (2.4%) sample size that the average erect girth was 4.5 inches using a sample of men whom were very likely to have smaller penises compared to other men in the study, (since this same erect sample size was smaller than the stretched flaccid length sample size), the men with larger penises in the study that did not have their erect penis measured are likely to be at least, on average, 0.84 inches thicker than them. Therefore, yes, it's more reasonable to conclude that the real average penis size is 3.6 inches long flaccid and 3.66 inches thick flaccid, 5.2 inches when the flaccid penis is stretched, and the erect penis size is 6.6 inches long and 5.3 inches thick, and not 5.1 inches long and 4.5 inches around.


Personal Experiences and Anecdotes
Nonetheless, this makes more sense because, based on my personal experiences, of all men I've dated, I noticed that most guys were within the 6-8-inch range. I believe that if 5 inches was truly the average penis size, then more women and I would encounter them far more often. Furthermore, penises within the 6-8-inch range tend to be more common in homemade porn that features real couples having sex in their bedrooms that weren't hired for their size to act in porno flicks. A common argument against this claim is that men with larger penises are more confident with their size and thus are more likely to film their penis and upload it to the internet. While that counter-argument does sound reasonable, even if men with 5-inch penises were less confident, they should still outnumber every other size on the internet for the simple fact that they're supposedly the average size, meaning they're the most common. Instead, 5-inch penises are often much more visible when you specifically search such porn sites for small penis. To put 5.1 to 5.5 inches into perspective, compare it to a can of Pepsi or an ink pen. The average penis that you would see in such porn would be much larger than a soda can or pen.

How I Rank Penis Sizes
This also makes more sense when considering the scale that I use for determining penis size. When ranking penis size, I consider it as such:

3 inches and below: (Tiny/Micropenis) - Not only extremely rare, but this is also a medical condition and people with penises this small are considered candidates for penis enlargement surgery. During penetration, women are very likely to ask "is it in yet" with these sizes.

4-5 inches: (Small) - With the 4-inch range being on the smaller side of small and the 5-inch range being on the larger side of small. When having sex with penises this small, women are often forced into specific positions that allow the penis to penetrate deeper or else they wouldn't be able to enjoy the most from these sizes. Men these sizes tend to feel even smaller inside a woman when she becomes fully aroused due to the fact that the vagina expands to a length bigger than the penis and moistens, creating less friction.

6-7 inches: (Medium) - With 6 inches being the bare minimum of a medium-sized penis and 7 inches being on the larger side of medium. Penises within the 6-7 inch range should be the perfect fit for the average fully aroused woman, as her vagina expands the more that she is aroused. The average fully aroused vagina can expand up to 7 inches. Women are also more likely to experience vaginal orgasms with these sizes due to them being long enough to reach the G-spot. It's reasonable to conclude that if these sizes are near perfect fit for the average fully aroused woman, then the 6-7-inch range is medium-sized and closer to the true average size.

8-9 inches: (Big) - With the 8-inch range being on the smaller side of big, and the 9-inch range being on the larger side of big. I classify these sizes as big mainly because they are bigger than the average woman's fully aroused vagina. Because of this, men with these sizes often have to be careful during penetration to avoid hurting the woman, even when she is fully aroused. No matter how aroused and moist the woman gets, they still feel big inside her and can still risk hurting her.

10+ inches: (Huge) - Anything 10 inches and over is huge not just for similar reasons to the "big" category, but also for being extremely rare. Most likely, penetration would only be pleasant with extremely few women regarding this size.

Final Thoughts
When searching for information regarding the average penis size, the search typically leads to news articles rather than the actual scientific studies themselves. Because the writers of the articles are often not medical professionals themselves, many tend to misinterpret the nomogram data found in the studies they write about. This leads to several news articles reporting that the average erect penis size is within the 5-inch range and most people on the internet just eat it up without question. However, directly examining the studies prove that medical professionals mainly used the stretched penis length method to measure the penis rather than the erect penis length. Thus, because we already reviewed that stretched penis length is nothing more than adding an extra average of 1.6 inches to the flaccid penis, the majority of men are very much likely bigger than a mere 5 inches when fully erect.

That's why an average erect size of 6.6 inches and 5.3 girth is much more reasonable. Additionally, the tone and introductions of such news articles regarding penis size often tell men things such as "worry not, your size is normal" and likewise. For this reason, I believe that such articles regarding penis size are written mainly to serve as reassurance for men that believe they have a small penis and that the studies themselves are mainly conducted not to enlighten the world on what the average penis size truly is, but as a means to ease men's worries and treat men that might suffer from body dysmorphic disorder. Either way, my advice to men worried about your penis size is don't rely on penis size studies to present you with misleading information to help you feel better about yourself. Love yourself, do what you feel is better for yourself, find the right person for you, and do your best to work with the size that you have.

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What Girls & Guys Said

13 110
  • Great TED talk. I’m glad I came 💦💦💦

  • Penis envy is such a weird thing

  • When did this topic mention vaginas

  • Honestly wouldn't surprise me. It seems like every girl claims to have slept with multiple guys who were 7 or 8 inches. So either 7+ dicks are a lot more common than the stats would lead us to believe or guys with big dicks get laid a lot more on average.

  • You want to measure mine? Not sexual but if you want to that's up to you

  • 6" to 7" is common to me.

    • never had smaller than that? i often heard the women also had some in my size...

    • Common doesn’t mean average

  • The thing that this misses is that women prefer a voluminous one. So while a guy 9-10" is rare but how about a guy 9-10" and over 7" girth at the same time. That is a four sigma-squared rarity lacking any variance relationship. So all of these attempted dk studies seem to miss that key point of having rare length and rare girth simultaneously and the relative rarity of that. Women like to see their belly pop up and experience that full feeling not just length or just girth. What happens when a guy has >4X volume over average? The belly pops up. If a guy had >10” he could still have only a 2X volume over average for example.

    • Astute.

  • Yeah...

    The Average Erect Penis Size is Bigger Than Five Inches
  • This is a bad take. I don't think that 28 year old woman on GaG taking peoples word online about how big they are trumps the validity of actual scientific research. Also, where's your research references?

  • Luckily I love my penis. I can only imagine what reading this did to some guys. Kinda fucked up. Love your penis guys even if its small there are women out there for you. There are all different sized vaginas as well. I don't know what the point of this was but love yourself guys don't let females like this get you down.

  • No one believes you. Sorry.

  • we got a size queen

    • @chubbycrow: Why do you say that?

    • you seem to be going for really big lol. also it was partially a joke

  • I kind of only read part of it and skimmed through the rest.
    But I've been thinking the same thing.
    Mine's 6.25 inches fully erect. Most women I've talked to said their boyfriend's penises were 7 inches. This to me is the more realistic average.

  • It depends of what ethnicity we're referring to.
    I've seen Asian porn and it's true that Asian dudes really do have small d! cks.

  • not sure who claimed 5 inches was average to begin with xD

  • interesting read…but no. Researchers do not publish studies to coddle men. The average penis size truly is 5 inches. You can’t go off of self reported data or studies where men volunteer to get their dicks measured…because typically only men with above average dicks would volunteer for something like that.

  • This is amazing

  • 6.5in here & if your wondering how I'm SO SURE... Cuz a chick actually did the measurement for me one night. (No Really:) I've NEVER had a complaint, in fact usually turn them into a total nympho & I hv to say
    "NO, IM TIRED" LOL

    • You're a funny guy man. I'm gonna follow.

  • Okay, big assumption

  • Being 4 inches well that just sucks. Apparent now with this data its going to b harder for me to date, have an friends with benefits, and have a girlfriend. I do have lots of draw backs, i'm a virgin, short, chubby, and a small wiener. fuck

    • Hah, small bone pone.

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