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Farts are a natural (and objectively hilarious) aspect of daily life, but most members of the scientific community have more prestigious matters to focus on than flatulence. However, that was not the case with some researchers in Australia who decided to tackle that topic in a quest to determine how many times the average person passes gas each day.
Every person on the planet is united by the variety of bodily functions we rely on to survive as well as a need for the sustenance that is responsible for certain and inevitable byproducts that tend to be shoved into the shadows in the name of a “polite society.”
That includes what the medical community refers to as “flatulence” and what most people call a “fart.” Those largely unavoidable expulsions of gas are a natural part of the digestive process and should be a fairly regular occurrence for the average person, although we live in a world where proudly letting one rip in the presence of others is widely viewed as poor form.
The fairly taboo nature of farts means there aren’t many situations where you’re going to find yourself discussing them in great detail with most people in your social circle; “How many times do you let one rip per day?” isn’t the kind of conversation starter you’ll usually encounter at a dinner party.
However, that question was the basis for a study that set out to answer how frequently the average person farts on a daily basis.
Researchers in Australia have figured out how many times the typical person farts each day
At the end of May, JAMA Network Open published a research letter concerning the results of a study that was conducted by researchers affiliated with Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.
The study in question revolved around the 6,416 Australians who logged a grand total of 360,192 “outputs” on an app dubbed “Chart Your Farts,” which was created especially for the occasion. As the letter notes, previously published research asserted “normal” person passes gas between five and 20 times per day, and the people behind the experiment set out to see if that range was accurate.
According to their findings, the average “flatus per day” came in at 5, although that number was seemingly skewed by some particularly flatulent individuals when you consider the median sat at 3.8 (around 80% of subjects came in between two and seven).
They also noted evenings tended to be the most popular time for farts, noting “a peak between 6 and 10 PM” (there was a smaller spike between noon and 2 PM, which would seemingly line up with the typical lunch).
If you’re curious, there was also a small difference between men and women, with the former recording 5.2 per day and the latter 4.8. People between the ages of 26 and 35 were the most active on the fart front at 5.2, while those between 14 and 25 came in the lowest at 4.4.
The more you know!