What size do women prefer?
In the best study (3D models, Prause 2015), women preferred about 16 cm (6.3 in) length and 12.2 cm (4.8 in) girth for a long-term partner — slightly above average, with girth mattering as much as length.
Handed real choices, women picked about 16.0 cm (6.3 in) length and 12.2 cm (4.8 in) girth for a long-term partner — a hair above average. That number comes from Prause et al. (2015), and it beats every survey on the shelf for one reason: women held 33 3D-printed models and chose. No memory, no fantasy, no flattering guess. Tactile crushes hypothetical.
Context nudges the number, but barely. For a one-night partner the pick rose to 16.3 cm length and 12.7 cm girth; for someone to keep, it slid back toward the mean. Girth pulled as much weight as length in both rounds — exactly what you’d expect, since the nerve endings that clock it sit in the outer third.
Here’s the stat men keep missing: in survey after survey, the large majority of women say they’re happy with their partner’s size — a far bigger share than the men happy with their own. The gap lives in your head, not in the data. Want the cold odds on your own measurement? See how rare is my size.
More in does size matter.