The Typical Smartphone has 25,127 Bacteria per Square Inch

We’re still living in the midst of a global pandemic. All of us know that we need to wash our hands regularly and use hand sanitizer to mitigate the spread of germs so that we don’t spread Covid or the Flu to others. However, how many of us think about cleaning our cell phones? Cell phones often get dropped on the ground. They get placed on dirty table tops and oh yeah… do you use our cell phones while in the bathroom? If you answered yes, you're not alone. According to a survey from BankMyCell, this is the world's dirtiest little tech secret. It doesn't matter whether you're male or female, iOS or Android user, from the East or West Coast—you probably use your smartphone when you’re doing your business.

According to Seattle Times journalist Bobby Caina Calvan, your phone is covered in tens of thousands of germs: 25,127 bacteria per square inch, to be specific. This makes cell phones one of the most germ ridden objects that we regularily come in contact. When compared to other items typically categorized as “dirty,” cell phones take the trophy. Last year, Mashable.com put together a little video that compared the number of bacteria covering cell phones to bacteria covering toilet seats, pet food dishes, kitchen countertops, checkout touchscreens, and doorknobs. This is what they reported:

• Toilet seat: 1,201 bacteria per square inch

• Kitchen countertops: 1,736 bacteria per square inch

• Pet food dish: 2,110 bacteria per square inch

• Checkout screen: 4,500 bacteria per square inch

• Doorknob: 8,643 bacteria per square inch

Your favorite tech device, your smartphone, carries more than three times the number of germs that dirty doorknobs do. Think about that next time you hold that thing up to your face, or when you pass your smartphone to a child to use.

So what do you do? Well, for starters, keep washing your hands (or start, if you don’t do so regularly). But secondly, make sure to consistently clean your phone. Experts recommend using UV cleaning devices, or disposable wipes made to clean and disinfect cell phone surfaces, but you can also clean your phone with a gentile cloth—not a paper towel that may scratch your phone—dampened with a mix of 60% water and 40% isopropyl alcohol. If you’re high-tech, a gadget that pulses UV light to destroy surface bacteria might be your thing. Whatever method you choose, remember to clean your phone regularly to keep bacteria far from you, and helps mitigate the spread of contagion.