Who Answered The Penis Size Survey?

Age

The majority of those taking part in the survey – 61% – were in the youngest age group (16-24 years) whilst almost a quarter were in the age range 25-34 years. Older men – 35 and over – represented 14% of those taking part. chart:

Country of Residence

Those taking part in the survey came from 27 separate countries and all five continents were represented. The bulk of those taking part (39%) were in the United States, with 9% of respondents living in the UK, 7% in Canada and 4% in the Netherlands. The other countries represented are:

Belgium, Czech Rep, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Russain Federation, Spain, Sweden, Turkey
India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Thailand
Brazil, Mexico
Australia, New Zealand

Ethnic Origin

As part of the questionnaire we asked respondents to tell us their ethnic origin. This was because previous studies have shown that there is some variation in average penis sizes for male populations of different ethnic origin and we hoped to conduct an analysis of the results on this basis. chart:

Because the overwhelming majority of the men taking part in the survey were white it is not possible to break down the sizes by ethnic origin and undertake comparisons with this data. Whilst this is disappointing it is, in a sense, understandable – cultural sensibilities will have influenced whether some groups took part and, of course, Internet access varies significantly across the globe.

Circumcised or Uncircumcised?

We also wanted to know whether the men taking part were circumcised or not. In the past it has been suggested that whether or not a man has a foreskin may be a contributory factor in both condom breakage and slippage during use – for example it might determine how easy the man finds it to put the condom on or affect the way that the condom moves around during intercourse.

The chart shows that there was a fairly even split amongst our survey respondents, 50% of whom were circumcised. Surprisingly, a relatively high number of respondents (8%) indicated that they didn’t know what their circumcision status was. This possibly indicates a lack of education in some countries.

Given that the greatest part of our survey respondents come from the US, it is not surprising that the circumcision rate for this survey is as high as 50%. As documented in a recent magazine article (Men’s Health, July/August 1998, pp. 130-135, 163). 85% of men across the world are uncircumcised and the US is the only Western country that routinely circumcises baby boys for non-religious reasons. There is much debate in the US about the reasons for this practice and a number of Internet sites deal with the issues. Analysis of the US (1,100 respondents) and UK (252 respondents) data in this survey provides a chartic indication of this difference in the practice of circumcision. Whilst 83% of the US respondents were circumcised almost exactly the opposite was true of the UK respondents, 84% of whom were uncircumcised. chart