Many men still sit to urinate, 40% of Germans, 10% of Americans

Apparently, many men can’t stand the urge to urinate. Or maybe you just don’t want to put up with it. In fact – are you sitting for this – 40% of German men interviewed by UK market research firm YouGov always sit down to urinate. Yes always. That’s more than a small number of men. A further 22% of German men surveyed plant their rear end on toilet seats most of the time while peeing. This clearly puts German men first among men from 13 different countries when it comes to the percentage of men surveyed who sit down when they go, well, number one.

Such a position did not sit well with the American men interviewed. A smaller percentage (10%) of American men surveyed always sat, while 13% sat most of the time, 23% sat occasionally, 17% rarely sat, and 31% never sat. Interestingly, six percent of Americans surveyed didn’t know what they were doing when they peed. It makes you wonder if they have temporary amnesia when they empty their bladder and say after leaving a bathroom, “Something happened in there, but I’m not sure what exactly .”

Of course, take those specific numbers with a bowl full of salt. The YouGov survey questioned a sample of just 7,024 men aged 18 and over across 13 countries. That meant about 700 men in the United States and about 500 men in each of the other countries were interviewed from March 28 to April 20, 2023. So YouGov didn’t get a ton of responses. Additionally, YouGov did not specify how they selected the samples or provide further breakdowns of the samples besides dividing them into two age groups: males 18-34 and males 55 and older. . So a big “but” is whether the sample was overrepresented or underrepresented with men who tend to plant their butts on toilet seats while urinating.

After German men, Australia had the second highest percentage of men still seated (25%). After men from Down Under, three European countries had the three highest percentages of men who always sat down every time they peed: 22% in Sweden, 19% in France and 19% in Denmark. Next come Canadian (16%), Spanish (14%) and Italian (13%) men. The same percentage of Polish men (10%) have always planted their buns as American men. Of the 13 countries, three had lower percentages of men still in office: Britain at 9%, Mexico at 6% and Singapore at 5%.

Now Matthew Smith, the head of data journalism for YouGov, has pointed out that there is a rather derisive German term for men who sit down to pee, sitzpinkler, essentially labeling them as not being very manly. So if you were to assume that younger men were more preoccupied with these social labels before they got to the age that beeps, you might expect a higher percentage of younger men to be ever sit than older men. Indeed, this was the case among German men, with 11% of those in the 18-34 age bracket never sitting down, compared to 9% of those in the 55+ age bracket. . Similar differences were observed among men from Singapore (33% of younger men versus 30% of older men) and Canada (19% versus 18%). However, “urine” is a surprise if you thought such trends would continue in other countries. Men in the 55+ age group were more likely to never sit down to urinate than those in the 18-34 age group among men in the rest of the countries such as the UK (40 vs 23%), the Australians (38 against 10). 24 percent), Americans (35 versus 21 percent) and Danes (37 versus 21 percent).

So the big question is what is the best way to position yourself when paying attention to your urine? Well, there are potential benefits to taking things while seated. This position can further relax your muscles, allowing you to go more with the flow, so to speak. Plus, sitting down can reduce splashing since you bring your you-know-what closer to the bowl. And toilet splatter is not the same as chocolate splatter. Toilets can be full of nasty germs that you don’t want on your face, mouth, body, or clothes.

Of course, when you’re in a public restroom with only urinals available, you might have nothing to do if you don’t stand up and use the urinal. Sitting on or in the urinal would be considered bad form. Therefore, you may need to take a stand in public.

Other than conforming to the design of urinals, there doesn’t seem to be any natural benefit to peeing while standing up. Of course, you may be more ready to run if, for example, a bear attacks you. But that rarely happens in bathrooms.

You don’t have to have “HD pee” to realize that not everything we do in society is completely logical and science-driven. Current pee conventions aren’t necessarily the best way to do things.