Both 14.34 cm and 12.53 cm, in the same 778 men. Habous 2015 induced erections pharmacologically and measured each man twice, once with the ruler pressed through the fat pad to the pubic bone and once from the skin. The gap between the two is 1.81 cm. The claimed 13.5 cm matches neither, and sits almost exactly between them.
The claim runs 0.84 cm below the measurement, and both are erect measurements, so the gap is not an artefact of measuring different things.
What was actually measured in Saudi Arabia?
This is one of the two most important studies on this entire site, and it is not because of Saudi Arabia. Seven hundred and seventy-eight men, real erections induced with an injection, measured by clinicians, both ways. It settles a question the rest of the literature papers over: how much does bone-pressing add? The answer is 1.81 cm here, and 2.0 cm in the only other study that did the same thing, an Egyptian control group of 59 men.
Hold that against the map. The claimed difference between the highest and lowest country in the whole ranking is under 8 cm, and most neighbouring countries sit within half a centimetre of each other. A methodological choice that nobody records moves a country's figure by nearly two. Studies differ in which of the two they report, and compilations do not track which is which. Every ranking built from mixed sources is therefore sorting countries partly by how their researchers held a ruler.
The same research group produced the other indispensable paper here. Habous 2015 had seven andrology specialists each measure the same 201 men, and found interobserver variability of 16 to 27 % for length. Not between countries. Between the seven people in one room measuring the same men.
How does that compare with the rest of the world?
The claim puts Saudi Arabia 92nd of 119 countries on the ranked list. Here is that number set against the figures that come with a method attached.
Figure
cm
What it is
The claim for Saudi Arabia
13.50
Labelled erect. No method, no sample size, no reference.
Habous et al., J Sex Med
14.34
erect, 778 men, 2015. The best located
measurement in Saudi Arabia.
Clinically measured worldwide
13.12
Erect, 15,521 men. Veale 2015, the pooled clinical figure.
Pooled worldwide
13.93
Erect, 55,761 men. Belladelli 2023, 75 studies.
Pooled for Asia
11.74
Erect, 95 % confidence interval
10.18–13.29 cm
. Belladelli 2023.
That last interval is 3.11 cm wide,
for a whole continent, from the largest meta-analysis there is. The claimed map it sits
under spreads all 119 countries across
7.9 cm and prints every
country to one decimal place. Read those two sentences together and you have the
entire problem with penis size by country.
How many men does the claim cover?
778 measured → 14,000,000 described
778 men in Saudi Arabia appear in the studies this register could locate. The claimed figure is applied to roughly 14,000,000 adult men: one measured man for every 17,995.
Where would you land in Saudi Arabia?
Against the claimed figure, because that is the number people mean when they ask. It
is the weaker of the two numbers above, and the calculator says so. Everything is
computed in your browser and nothing you enter is stored or sent anywhere.
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1,350,250,000men smaller
1,350,240,000men larger
50 of 100 men worldwide are larger than you.
L 13.6 cm
Estimated from the claimed world mean of 13.6 cm across ≈ 2,700,490,000 adult
men in 119 countries. You beat the claimed mean in 31 of them. The
claims are the internet's, not ours; we are grading them one by one.
See the audit.
What should you take from this?
Saudi Arabia's claimed figure is a middle value between two real measurements of the same men, which is a fitting summary of the whole compilation: not a lie exactly, just a number with no method behind it.
For your own measurement, this is the practical point. Bone-pressed or not is worth about 2 cm, and it is the single biggest thing you control. The measurement guide covers how to do it consistently.
Nearby in the register
The nearest countries with an entry of their own here.
Nearer still, and with nothing to show: United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Syria. Those
countries carry a claimed figure on every map and no located study behind it, so they
have no page here. The method page lists all of them.
Sources for this page
Habous et al., J Sex Med, 2015, n = 778. Clinician-measured, pharmacologically induced erection.
Study
Veale D et al. Am I normal? BJU International 2015; 115(6): 978–986. The pooled
clinical figures used throughout this site.
Belladelli F et al. Worldwide Temporal Trends in Penile Length. World J Mens Health
2023; 41(4). The regional pooled figures and confidence intervals.
The full reference list, the grading scheme and all 119 claims are on the
method and sources page.