Researchers think they may have discovered an explanation for why condoms have a high failure rate in India: Indian men just aren't packing a lot of punch in their pants.



The Times of India has the withering details:

"As per international standards, most condoms are 150 mm to 180 mm in length and 44 to 56 mm in width. But data collected in Mumbai till 2001 showed that 60% of the participants measured 126 to 156 mm in length and 30% between 100 and 125 mm," said a city researcher, pointing out that there was a difference of at least 5 cm in length.

Translation: The penises of 6 in 10 Indian men measured were 5-6.1 inches long, and 30 percent were between 3.9 and 4.9 inches.

Most condoms, meanwhile, are a rather hopeful 5.9-7 inches.

That makes for lot of excess rubber in India.

But why would that matter? A researcher explains: "While improper usage is one of the reasons, there is also condom slippage or tear which is associated with the size of the condom in relation to an erect penis."

So should these findings make you feel superior? Maybe, maybe not (details below or after the jump, depending on where you're reading this).

It's actually notoriously difficult to figure out average penis sizesbecause there's different ways to measure the thing. Do you start fromhere? Or, um, there? And wouldn't the presence of a ruler (not tomention a researcher) be a bit, well, deflating?

According to this site, the Kinsey folks said the average was 6.16

inches – check out the nifty graph of how common various sizes are –

but UC San Francisco researchers clocked in their subjects at just 5.1

inches, while a Brazilian researcher reported 5.7 inches in his part ofthe world.

Wikipedia has much, much more on this topic.