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How Big Is a Red Blood Cell?

A red blood cell is about 7.5 µm across. That is about 228,000 times smaller than the average man. The disc-shaped cells that carry oxygen around your body.

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How big is a red blood cell compared to the average man?

A red blood cell is about 228,000 times smaller than the average man. The average man is 228,000× the size of a red blood cell: about 228,000 red blood cells stacked up would match it. By volume, about 286 trillion (2.9 × 10¹⁴) red blood cells would fit inside the average man.

Red Blood Cell size facts

A red blood cell is about 7.5 micrometers wide.
An adult has about 25 trillion of them.

How does a red blood cell compare to other things?

A red blood cell next to 25 things of similar size, plus some everyday references:

Thing	Size	Compared to Red blood cell
Sun	865,000 miles (1,393,000 km) across	186 trillion× bigger
Earth	7,920 miles (12,740 km) across	1.7 trillion× bigger
Mount Everest	5.5 miles (8.849 km)	1.18 billion× bigger
Eiffel Tower	1,083 ft (330 m)	44 million× bigger
School bus	40 ft (12.2 m) long	1.63 million× bigger
Average man (world)	5 ft 7 in (171 cm)	228,000× bigger
Average woman (world)	5 ft 3 in (159 cm)	212,000× bigger
Baseball	2.9 in (7.4 cm) across	9,870× bigger
Tennis ball	2.6 in (6.7 cm) across	8,930× bigger
Wolf spider	2.4 in (6 cm) long	8,000× bigger
Bee hummingbird	2.2 in (5.5 cm) long	7,330× bigger
Golf ball	1.7 in (4.27 cm) across	5,690× bigger
US quarter	0.96 in (2.43 cm) across	3,230× bigger
Honeybee	0.59 in (1.5 cm) long	2,000× bigger
Ladybug	0.28 in (7 mm) long	933× bigger
Grain of rice	0.26 in (6.5 mm) long	867× bigger
Ant	0.16 in (4 mm) long	533× bigger
Flea	0.098 in (2.5 mm) long	333× bigger
Mustard seed	0.059 in (1.5 mm) across	200× bigger
Grain of sand	0.02 in (500 µm) long	66.7× bigger
Dust mite	0.012 in (300 µm) long	40× bigger
Human hair (width)	70 µm across	9.3× bigger
E. coli bacterium	2 µm long	3.8× smaller
Virus	100 nm across	75× smaller
DNA double helix (width)	2 nm wide	3,750× smaller

Where do these numbers come from?

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