Should men sit down to pee? What the surveys and doctors say

At the urinal, the question answers itself. At home, it’s one of the quieter debates in modern life. Some men sit. Some men stand. Some men have never considered sitting and are now uneasy that it’s an option.

Here’s what the numbers, a German court and the doctors say.

Who sits: the survey

In 2023 YouGov asked men in 13 countries whether they sit down to pee. The results, published in May 2023, split neatly along borders. YouGov didn’t publish the same figure for every country, so the wording in each row is theirs.

Country	Sit (YouGov’s wording)	Never sit
Germany	40% every time	10%
Australia	25% every time	n/a
USA	23% always or often	31%
Sweden	22% every time	n/a
Poland	27% always or most times	33%
UK	24% always or most times	33%
Mexico	21% most or all of the time	36%

Germany wins easily: 40% of German men sit every time and another 22% most times. The Germans even have a word for it, Sitzpinkler, which used to be an insult and now just looks like a statistic. Mexico has the most committed standers, with 36% saying they never sit.

The German court that defended standing

Germany may sit, but its courts protect the right to stand.

In January 2015 a district court in Düsseldorf heard a dispute between a landlord and a departing tenant. The landlord kept part of the deposit because the marble floor around the toilet had been dulled by years of splashes. The judge sided with the tenant. Peeing standing up, he ruled, is still common and counts as normal use of a flat, despite what the judge called the “increasing domestication of men”. If the floor was that delicate, the landlord should have said so.

A higher court later agreed that landlords have to warn tenants about sensitive floors. So it was never a ruling that men must sit. It was a ruling that men may stand.

Does it matter for your health?

For most men, not much. Writing in The Conversation in 2023, two Australian health researchers summed up the evidence: for a healthy man, the literature suggests it doesn’t matter whether he stands or sits. Studies found no real difference in how long it takes or how fast the flow is.

It gets more interesting if peeing has started to get harder:

• For some men with lower urinary tract symptoms (a weak stream, going often, not quite emptying), sitting helps them relax and empty properly.
• For some men with an enlarged prostate, the same article points to evidence that standing may empty the bladder better.
• In other words, it depends on the man. If you have symptoms, ask a doctor which works for you.

Those symptoms are worth taking seriously anyway. Read Peeing more at night? What your prostate might be telling you.

So, sit or stand?

At home, it’s your call and your bathroom floor. Sitting splashes less, which your cleaner, your partner and your landlord will all appreciate. Standing is faster, which is why it remains the global default.

At the urinal, the choice is made for you. What isn’t made for you is which urinal. That’s a harder problem, and a mathematical one. Practise it in Urinal Rules Forever.