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How Big Is a Virus?

A virus is about 100 nm across. That is about 17.1 million times smaller than the average man. A typical virus particle, like a flu or cold virus.

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How big is a virus compared to the average man?

A virus is about 17.1 million times smaller than the average man. The average man is 17.1 million× the size of a virus: about 17.1 million viruses stacked up would match it. By volume, about 121 quintillion (1.2 × 10²⁰) viruses would fit inside the average man.

Virus size facts

Many viruses, such as influenza, are about 100 nanometers across, about 1,000 times thinner than a hair.

How does a virus compare to other things?

A virus next to 25 things of similar size, plus some everyday references:

Thing	Size	Compared to Virus
Sun	865,000 miles (1,393,000 km) across	13.9 quadrillion× bigger
Earth	7,920 miles (12,740 km) across	127 trillion× bigger
Mount Everest	5.5 miles (8.849 km)	88.5 billion× bigger
Eiffel Tower	1,083 ft (330 m)	3.3 billion× bigger
School bus	40 ft (12.2 m) long	122 million× bigger
Average man (world)	5 ft 7 in (171 cm)	17.1 million× bigger
Average woman (world)	5 ft 3 in (159 cm)	15.9 million× bigger
Tennis ball	2.6 in (6.7 cm) across	670,000× bigger
Wolf spider	2.4 in (6 cm) long	600,000× bigger
Bee hummingbird	2.2 in (5.5 cm) long	550,000× bigger
Golf ball	1.7 in (4.27 cm) across	427,000× bigger
US quarter	0.96 in (2.43 cm) across	243,000× bigger
Honeybee	0.59 in (1.5 cm) long	150,000× bigger
Ladybug	0.28 in (7 mm) long	70,000× bigger
Grain of rice	0.26 in (6.5 mm) long	65,000× bigger
Ant	0.16 in (4 mm) long	40,000× bigger
Flea	0.098 in (2.5 mm) long	25,000× bigger
Mustard seed	0.059 in (1.5 mm) across	15,000× bigger
Grain of sand	0.02 in (500 µm) long	5,000× bigger
Dust mite	0.012 in (300 µm) long	3,000× bigger
Human hair (width)	70 µm across	700× bigger
Red blood cell	7.5 µm across	75× bigger
E. coli bacterium	2 µm long	20× bigger
DNA double helix (width)	2 nm wide	50× smaller
Hydrogen atom	106 pm across	943× smaller

Where do these numbers come from?

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