# Average voice pitch for men and women: what studies found Canonical: https://romeoapps.app/en/vocalmaxx/average-voice-pitch-men-women/ Author: Roméo Gambino · Published: 2026-09-10 · Updated: 2026-09-10 · App: VocalMaxx (https://romeoapps.app/en/vocalmaxx/) Measured speaking frequencies for adult men and women from published studies, why the figures differ, how age shifts them, and why an average is not a target. ## What the studies actually measure When research reports voice pitch, it usually measures speaking fundamental frequency: how many times per second the vocal folds vibrate while someone talks, expressed in hertz. Pitch is the listener’s perception of that frequency, so the two track each other closely without being identical. Every figure below is a measured fundamental frequency from a specific group of people, reading or talking in a specific way. That context matters, because change the group or the task and the number changes too. ## Why men’s and women’s voices differ The main reason is anatomy. Comparing male and female larynges, Titze (1989) found that fundamental frequency is scaled primarily according to the length of the vibrating part of the vocal folds, with a scale factor of 1.6 between the sexes. The same paper describes further differences in airflow, sound power and the shape of the space between the folds. A voice is therefore never just one number: two people with the same average frequency can sound quite different. ## A large sample of adults aged 40 to 79 One of the largest data sets comes from Berg and colleagues (2017), who measured the speaking voice of 2,472 adults aged 40 to 79 in Leipzig, Germany, 1,154 men and 1,318 women. In a normal conversational voice, the mean frequency was 111.9 Hz for the men and 168.5 Hz for the women. These are averages across a whole population sample, which is exactly what makes them useful as a reference and exactly why they say little about any one person. ## Loudness changes the figure The same study measured four levels of loudness, and the averages moved with them. For the softest speaking voice, the means were 111.8 Hz for men and 161.3 Hz for women. For a classroom voice, they rose to 130.2 Hz and 198.0 Hz, and for a shouting voice to 175.5 Hz and 246.2 Hz. The practical lesson is that your own reading depends on how loudly you speak, so a measurement taken while projecting cannot be compared with one taken in quiet conversation. ## A younger sample, reading aloud Other studies use different people and tasks. Izadi and colleagues (2012) measured 200 healthy adults aged 18 to 45 in Iran, 100 men and 100 women, while they read. They reported a fundamental frequency in reading of 170 to 240 Hz for women and 107 to 140 Hz for men. Note that this is a range, not a mean, and that it describes reading, which can differ from spontaneous speech. It is a reference for that group, not a universal standard. ## Why the published numbers disagree Put these studies side by side and the figures do not match exactly, and they should not be expected to. The people differ in age, language and country. The tasks differ: conversation, reading, a sustained vowel. Equipment, microphone distance and analysis settings differ. Even habits matter: Stoicheff (1981) attributed the higher frequencies she found in nonsmoking women, compared with earlier studies, to having controlled for smoking. There is no single correct average voice pitch, only well-described averages for particular groups. ## How men’s voices change with age Age shifts the figures in different directions for men and women. Hollien and Shipp (1972) measured 175 men aged 20 to 89 and found a progressive lowering of speaking fundamental frequency from age 20 to 40, followed by a rise from age 60 through the 80s. In the older sample studied by Berg and colleagues, frequencies increased significantly with age for men between 40 and 79. A man’s speaking pitch is therefore not fixed across adult life. ## How women’s voices change with age For women, Stoicheff (1981) studied 111 nonsmoking women aged 20 to 82 and found relative stability from after adolescence through early adulthood, then a decrease in the 50 to 59 age group that was maintained in the older groups. She attributed it to changes in vocal fold mass after menopause. In the Leipzig sample, by contrast, frequencies did not increase significantly with age for women. Differences between studies are a reminder that age effects are averages, not predictions. ## An average describes a group, not you Every figure on this page is either a group mean or a typical range reported for a sample. Individuals vary around them, and a voice that sits above or below the average of its group is not abnormal for that reason alone. The studies above do not define cut-offs between normal and abnormal voices, and none of them tells you what your voice ought to be. They tell you where the middle of a particular group fell, under particular conditions. ## Why an average is a poor target It is tempting to treat the average as a goal, especially for people who want to sound more typical for their gender. Pushing toward a number is exactly how voices get strained. The NIDCD lists speaking with a voice that is too high or too low among the causes of temporary hoarseness. If you want to change how your voice is perceived, resonance, pace and intonation matter alongside frequency, and a speech-language pathologist can work on them with you safely. ## How to measure your own speaking pitch If you want to know where your own voice sits, measure it the way the studies do: in normal speech, not on a single held note. Record a minute of conversation or a short paragraph read at your usual pace and volume, in a quiet room, at a steady distance from the microphone. Repeat on several days, since voices vary with time of day, tiredness and illness. Your own average across those recordings is far more meaningful than any single reading. ## Comparing your figure with the studies Once you have a stable average, compare it with the references above while remembering their conditions: the Leipzig means come from people aged 40 to 79 speaking conversationally, the Iranian ranges from people aged 18 to 45 reading aloud. If your figure differs, that is usually a description of you, not a problem. What deserves attention is change rather than position: a voice that becomes suddenly lower, rougher or harder to use. ## When a change is worth checking The NIDCD describes a hoarse voice as one that may sound breathy, raspy or strained, softer in volume or lower in pitch, and advises seeing a doctor if hoarseness lasts more than three weeks, especially without a cold or flu. Pain when speaking or swallowing, difficulty breathing, a lump in the neck or losing your voice for more than a few days are also reasons to see a doctor rather than to keep measuring. ## Where VocalMaxx fits VocalMaxx records short voice samples and shows your pitch in hertz, its stability and the range you used, so you can find your own average under similar conditions and compare your recordings over time. It does not compare you with population norms or grade your voice against an average, and a reading from it is a measurement, not a diagnosis. It is not a medical device. Stop practising if it causes pain, irritation or hoarseness, and seek professional advice. ## Questions ### What is the average voice pitch for a man? It depends on the group and the task. In a study of 2,472 adults aged 40 to 79, Berg and colleagues (2017) measured a mean conversational frequency of 111.9 Hz for men. A study of Iranian adults aged 18 to 45 reported 107 to 140 Hz for men reading aloud. ### What is the average voice pitch for a woman? In the same Leipzig study, the mean conversational frequency was 168.5 Hz for women aged 40 to 79. The Iranian study reported 170 to 240 Hz for women aged 18 to 45 reading aloud. ### Does voice pitch change with age? Yes, differently by sex. Hollien and Shipp (1972) found men’s speaking frequency fell from 20 to 40 and rose from 60 onward, and Stoicheff (1981) found a decrease in women from the 50 to 59 age group. ### Should I try to reach the average pitch for my gender? An average describes a group, not a target, and pushing your voice toward a number can strain it. A speech-language pathologist can help safely if you want to change how your voice is perceived. ## Further reading - Berg, Fuchs, Wirkner, Loeffler, Engel & Berger (2017), The speaking voice in the general population: normative data and associations to sociodemographic and lifestyle factors, Journal of Voice — https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvoice.2016.06.001 - Izadi, Mohseni, Daneshi & Sandughdar (2012), Determination of fundamental frequency and voice intensity in Iranian men and women aged between 18 and 45 years, Journal of Voice — https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvoice.2011.05.008 - Titze (1989), Physiologic and acoustic differences between male and female voices, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America — https://doi.org/10.1121/1.397959 - Hollien & Shipp (1972), Speaking fundamental frequency and chronologic age in males, Journal of Speech and Hearing Research — https://doi.org/10.1044/jshr.1501.155 - Stoicheff (1981), Speaking fundamental frequency characteristics of nonsmoking female adults, Journal of Speech and Hearing Research — https://doi.org/10.1044/jshr.2403.437 - NIDCD: Hoarseness — https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hoarseness