How the percentile calculator works
Every number on this page traces to one source: Veale, Miles, Bramley, Muir, and Hodsoll, "Am I normal? A systematic review and construction of nomograms for flaccid and erect penis length and circumference in up to 15,521 men," BJU International 2015;115(6):978-986. It is the largest pooled analysis of clinician-measured studies, and its nomograms model each measurement as approximately normally distributed. For erect length the mean is 13.12 cm with a standard deviation of 1.66 cm; for erect girth (circumference) the mean is 11.66 cm with a standard deviation of 1.10 cm.
Your percentile is simply the share of that distribution sitting at or below your measurement. "About the 62nd percentile" means larger than about 62 of 100 men in the study, and smaller than about 38. One honest caveat before you read too much into a single digit: a clinician-measured study is the ceiling of reliability here, and even careful measurement carries a few millimeters of error. Three millimeters of technique difference can move an erect-length result by roughly five or six percentile points near the middle of the curve. Treat your result as a neighborhood, not an address.
The formula
x is your measurement in cm, μ is the study mean (13.12 cm for erect length, 11.66 cm for erect girth), σ is the standard deviation (1.66 cm and 1.10 cm respectively), and Φ is the cumulative distribution function of the standard normal curve. Inches convert at 1 in = 2.54 cm before the math runs. We evaluate Φ with the Abramowitz and Stegun error-function approximation (formula 7.1.26), which is accurate to about seven decimal places, comfortably beyond the four decimals this page needs.
Worked example
Say you measure an erect length of 5.5 in and an erect girth of 4.7 in.
Length: 5.5 in = 13.97 cm. z = (13.97 − 13.12) / 1.66 = 0.512. Φ(0.512) = 0.696, so about the 70th percentile: larger than about 70 of 100 men in the study.
Girth: 4.7 in = 11.94 cm. z = (11.94 − 11.66) / 1.10 = 0.254. Φ(0.254) = 0.600, so about the 60th percentile.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you
A percentile locates you in a crowd. It does not grade you. The middle half of men, 25th to 75th percentile, spans only about 12.0 to 14.2 cm erect (4.7 to 5.6 in), a band you could cover with two fingers. Flaccid size predicts erect size poorly, which is why locker-room comparisons mislead, and partner satisfaction research is a separate question this page does not answer. For the full reference tables, including flaccid measurements and a percentile-by-percentile chart, see our average penis size chart. If you are here for a practical fitting question, the condom size calculator turns girth into a nominal-width recommendation, and the size visualizer shows measurements to scale.
One more thing, said plainly and without judgment: if size worries weigh on you, that is a real and common concern worth raising with a doctor or therapist. Distress about size is far more treatable than most men assume, and bringing it up is routine for the professionals who hear it.