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How Big Is an E. Coli Bacterium?

An E. coli bacterium is about 2 µm long. That is about 855,000 times smaller than the average man. A common rod-shaped bacterium.

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How big is an E. coli bacterium compared to the average man?

An E. coli bacterium is about 855,000 times smaller than the average man. The average man is 855,000× the size of an E. coli bacterium: about 855,000 e. coli bacteriums stacked up would match it.

E. Coli Bacterium size facts

An E. coli bacterium is about 2 micrometers long and 0.5 micrometers wide.

How does an E. coli bacterium compare to other things?

An E. coli bacterium next to 25 things of similar size, plus some everyday references:

Thing	Size	Compared to E. coli bacterium
Sun	865,000 miles (1,393,000 km) across	696 trillion× bigger
Earth	7,920 miles (12,740 km) across	6.37 trillion× bigger
Mount Everest	5.5 miles (8.849 km)	4.42 billion× bigger
Eiffel Tower	1,083 ft (330 m)	165 million× bigger
School bus	40 ft (12.2 m) long	6.1 million× bigger
Average man (world)	5 ft 7 in (171 cm)	855,000× bigger
Average woman (world)	5 ft 3 in (159 cm)	795,000× bigger
Tennis ball	2.6 in (6.7 cm) across	33,500× bigger
Wolf spider	2.4 in (6 cm) long	30,000× bigger
Bee hummingbird	2.2 in (5.5 cm) long	27,500× bigger
Golf ball	1.7 in (4.27 cm) across	21,400× bigger
US quarter	0.96 in (2.43 cm) across	12,100× bigger
Honeybee	0.59 in (1.5 cm) long	7,500× bigger
Ladybug	0.28 in (7 mm) long	3,500× bigger
Grain of rice	0.26 in (6.5 mm) long	3,250× bigger
Ant	0.16 in (4 mm) long	2,000× bigger
Flea	0.098 in (2.5 mm) long	1,250× bigger
Mustard seed	0.059 in (1.5 mm) across	750× bigger
Grain of sand	0.02 in (500 µm) long	250× bigger
Dust mite	0.012 in (300 µm) long	150× bigger
Human hair (width)	70 µm across	35× bigger
Red blood cell	7.5 µm across	3.8× bigger
Virus	100 nm across	20× smaller
DNA double helix (width)	2 nm wide	1,000× smaller
Hydrogen atom	106 pm across	18,900× smaller

Where do these numbers come from?

Sizes are typical adult or reported values, rounded for readability. Read how we measure and compare sizes.