How do you measure your penis correctly?
To measure your penis correctly, measure when fully erect: press a ruler against the pubic bone at the base and measure along the top to the tip for length, and wrap a flexible tape around the thickest part for girth. The clinician-measured average is 13.12 cm (5.16 in) erect length and 11.66 cm (4.59 in) girth.
Measure erect — that’s the number research is built on. Three steps get you a figure you can actually compare:
- Length: press a rigid ruler firmly into the pubic bone at the base, compressing the fat pad, and read along the top of the shaft to the tip. The fat-pad press is what separates an honest reading from an inflated one.
- Girth: wrap a flexible tape (or a strip of paper you mark and then lay flat) around the thickest part of the shaft.
- Conditions: be fully rigid before you start and take the reading standing, so it’s repeatable.
Now the benchmarks. Veale et al. 2015 (BJU International, n=15,521) pegs the clinician-measured averages at 13.12 cm (5.16 in) erect length and 11.66 cm (4.59 in) erect girth, with flaccid at 9.16 cm (3.6 in) and stretched at 13.24 cm (5.21 in). Roughly 90% of men fall between 10.4 and 15.9 cm (4.1–6.2 in) erect: 5 inches lands near the 40th percentile, 5.5 around the 70th, 6 around the 90th. Girth climbs faster — 5 inches (12.7 cm) around is already the 83rd percentile.
Two things to discount. The self-reported “national averages” floating around online run high, so don’t measure yourself against those. And if a stretched or erect reading comes in under about 9.3 cm (3.7 in), that’s the clinical micropenis threshold, which applies to roughly 0.6% of men.
See exactly where your number lands in penis size statistics, or get the full step-by-step in how to measure.
Try the size percentile calculator →