Female attractiveness scale: we measured it on 10,096 women

On the female attractiveness scale, people rate how attractive a woman looks from 1 to 10. It comes up all the time ("she's a 9"), and most people assume that 5 is the average woman. We wanted to see what the scale looks like with real ratings instead of guesses.

So we looked at the photos of 10,096 women, rated 4.8 million times by 67,999 men on Photoeval between 2021 and 2026. In short, the female scale works much the way people imagine it. Half of women are rated below 5.3, a 6 puts a woman in the top 30%, and men rate women much higher than women rate men.

What is the female attractiveness scale?

It's an informal rating, from 1 (least attractive) to 10 (most attractive). There is no official version. It lives in conversations, dating forums and social media.

The usual assumption is that 5 is the average woman, that most women sit around the middle, and that very few reach the top. For once, the assumption is close to what the data shows.

Where do women really rank on the scale?

When men rate women's photos, the ratings spread on both sides of the middle, in a shape close to a bell. Most women are rated between 4 and 7, and virtually nobody reaches 9.

1 to 1.9

0.3%

2 to 2.9

4.3%

3 to 3.9

15.7%

4 to 4.9

22.8%

5 to 5.9

26.9%

6 to 6.9

21.8%

7 to 7.9

7.7%

8 to 8.9

0.6%

9 to 10

0.0%

Share of women in each score range, from their average rating by men. 10,096 women, one photo each, each rated by at least 20 men. Photoeval rated from 1 to 5 at the time, converted here to 1 to 10 (3 becomes 5.5, the middle). Photoeval, 2021 to 2026.

Here is what each rating actually means:

Your photo is rated	Women rated this high or higher	So you are in
5.3/10	50%	the top half
6/10	30%	the top 30%
7/10	8%	the top 8%
8/10	0.6%	fewer than 1 in 100

Average rating by men, out of 10. Same 10,096 women.

So a woman rated 6/10 is above average, but not rare: almost a third of women get there. The top of the scale starts at 7, where fewer than 1 woman in 10 sits.

Do men rate women more generously than women rate men?

Yes, and the gap is wide. We ran the same measure on the male attractiveness scale, with women rating men's photos, and the two scales look nothing alike.

	Men, rated by women	Women, rated by men
Half are rated below	4.7/10	5.3/10
Rated 6/10 or more	9%	30%
Rated 7/10 or more	1%	8%
Below the middle (5.5)	80%	56%
Ratings that are the lowest	26%	18%

Average ratings out of 10. Men: 15,074 men rated by women. Women: 10,096 women rated by men. One photo each, each rated by at least 20 people of the other gender. Photoeval, 2021 to 2026.

A 6/10 puts a woman in the top 30%, but a man in the top 9%. Women give the lowest rating more often (26% of their ratings, against 18% from men), so most men's averages end up below the middle. Men spread their ratings more evenly, so women land on both sides of it.

This matches what the dating site OkCupid reported in 2009: men rated women's looks far more evenly, while women rated 80% of men below the middle. More than a decade later, with different people on a different site, the pattern is the same.

Does a woman's age change how she's rated?

Yes, more than it does for men. Women are rated highest between 19 and 25, at about 5.5 out of 10 (18-year-olds a little lower, at 5.1). After that, ratings go down steadily: about 5.3 in the late twenties, 4.9 in the early thirties, 4.7 in the late thirties, 4.4 in the early forties and 4.0 at 50 and over.

Average rating by men, out of 10. Shaded: 95% confidence interval.

By the age the woman declared. 10,096 women, one photo each, each rated by at least 20 men.

For men, ratings hold steady until about 31 and drop more slowly after that. In a photo, a woman's age weighs more.

Part of this may come from who is rating: two ratings in three come from men under 30. Men aged 40 and over rate women in their thirties 5.3, the level of the average woman.

Does the age of the man rating you matter?

Overall, not much. Men aged 18 to 22 are a little tougher than older men, and the age groups' averages are within a few tenths of a point. For women over 30, it matters more: young men rate them much lower than older men do.

What doesn't change is who they rate highest. Men of every age rate women under 30 the highest, including men aged 40 and over. In the bottom row of the grid below, men aged 40 and over rate women aged 23 to 29 at 5.8, and women their own age 4.7.

His age ↓ / Her age →	18–22	23–29	30–39	40+
18–22	5.3	5.2	4.5	3.8
23–29	5.3	5.5	4.8	4.2
30–39	5.4	5.6	5.0	4.3
40+	5.5	5.8	5.3	4.7

Average rating, out of 10. The darker the cell, the higher the rating. Ratings of the same 10,096 women (one photo each, rated by at least 20 men), men and women aged 18 or over.

Older men are also the most generous overall: men aged 40 and over rate every age group of women higher than men aged 18 to 22 do.

Do men agree on who is attractive?

Much less than the averages suggest.

Almost every woman is someone's top rating and someone else's lowest. On a dating app, you don't need everyone to like your photo. You need the right people to.

So what is your attractiveness scale?

If men rate your photo 5/10, you're right in the middle. At 6/10, you're in the top 30%, and at 7/10 in the top 8%.

The only way to know is to have your photo rated by people who don't know you. Photoeval's free rate my photo test does exactly that: real people of the gender you choose rate your photo, and you see where it ranks.

These are ratings of a single photo, not of people met in real life. Photoeval's users are younger than the general population (half of the women are 21 or younger), and the largest groups come from the United States, the United Kingdom and Serbia.