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Beach balls are just fun to play with at the beach, for both adults and children. But the sizes of these balls can get confusing because there are no specific standard sizes like the other sports balls.
We wanted here to find out the most popular beach ball sizes (instead of ‘standard sizes’) along with the typical inflated sizes.
In order to uncover the popular sizes of beach balls, we have performed a comprehensive online research through analyzing over 460 product listings on Amazon US.
Also, we were able to find several beach ball listings from all Amazon sites that specified both the standard size and inflated size. This helped us to get an idea on the amount of size reduction when the ball is inflated.
Here are the results;
The Most Popular Sizes of Beach Balls
Remember; when we’re talking about the standard sizes, we simply mean the deflated length.
The standard size of beach balls can be anywhere from 5 inches all the way to 48 inches (or 4 feet).
The most popular size of beach balls is hands down 16 inches, followed by 12 inches. These two sizes account for around 40% of all beach balls out there.
The most popular size of beach balls is 16 inches, followed by 12 inches.
Other notable beach ball sizes that are somewhat common include 24″, 9″, 5″, 10″, and 20″.
The seven sizes mentioned constitute about 67% of beach balls on the market (i.e. two thirds).
The Inflated Size of Beach Balls
It’s worth noting the inflated size is basically the diameter after the ball is inflated.
When a beach ball is inflated, the reduction in the original size is 25-33% (i.e. quarter to third) with the average being about 29%. For example, a 12″ beach ball will have an inflated diameter of around 8-9 inches.
After a beach ball is inflated, its diameter becomes smaller than the original listed size by a quarter to a third.
Based on those numbers, here is the expected inflated diameter of the most popular sizes mentioned above:
| Inflated Size of Beach Balls | |
|---|---|
| Standard Size (in) | Inflated Diameter (in) |
| 5 | 3.4 – 3.8 |
| 9 | 6 – 6.8 |
| 10 | 6.7 – 7.5 |
| 12 | 8 – 9 |
| 16 | 10.7 – 12 |
| 20 | 13.4 – 15 |
| 24 | 16.1 – 18 |
You can use the minimum or maximum diameter depending on your specific needs. If you have an upper size limit you don’t want to exceed, go with the maximum value and vice versa.
Conclusion
There you have it, the popular and inflated sizes of beach balls.
As indicated in the article, the inflated size of a beach ball (i.e. diameter) is significantly smaller than the listed size (i.e. deflated length).
Here is a summary of our findings:
- Beach balls can be as small as 5 inches and as large as 4 feet.
- The two most popular sizes of beach balls are 16 and 12 inches.
- The inflated diameter of beach balls is about 25-33% smaller than the standard size.
We hope the information here will be useful for your next fun visit to the beach.
