Like all Christian European nations, Sweden does not practice male circumcision. Muslim and Jewish immigrants, however, have brought their circumcision practices into Sweden. This clash of cultures has created tension and conflict between Swedish human rights principles and the blood rites of foreign religions.
Circumcision is also standard in the United States and parts of Southeast Asia and Africa, but is rare in Europe, Latin America, and most of Asia. A personal preference in favor of circumcision is more common in Anglophone countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
Among the non-circumcising nations are Holland, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Scandinavia, the U.S.S.R. , China, and Japan. People employing circumcision do so either for "health" reasons or as a religious ritual practiced by Muslims, Jews, most black Africans, non-white Australians, and others.
According to the World Health Organization, circumcision is most common in North Africa, West Africa, and the Middle East. In these areas, more than 80% of men and boys are circumcised. Malaysia, the Philippines, and South Korea also have high circumcision rates.
About 1 in 10 newborn boys in Australia undergo circumcision in Australia today. Male circumcision has been performed for religious and cultural reasons for thousands of years. In some cultures and religions, it remains an important religious and cultural ritual.
Currently, only 10-20% of boys in Australia and less than 10 % of boys in New Zealand are circumcised. Circumcision is generally a safe operation but as with all operations there are risks of minor complications and there have been cases of rare but more serious complications.
Back in the 1950s, roughly 80 per cent of Australian men and boys were circumcised. That rate has steadily decreased and now, around 20 per cent of Australian newborns are circumcised. This is largely due to developments in modern medicine.
In Japan, routine male circumcision has never been implemented for newborns and children, and adult males are mostly circumcised at aesthetic clinics. However, media reports indicate a trend of Japanese mothers willing to have their sons circumcised.
United Kingdom (15.8%)
A national survey on sexual attitudes in 2000 found that 15.8% of men or boys in the United Kingdom (ages 16–44) were circumcised by their parents' choosing, while 11.7% of 16- to 19-year-olds, and 19.6% of 40- to 44-year-olds said they had been circumcised.
The prevalence of circumcision varies widely in western countries led by the USA (71 per cent), New Zealand (33 per cent), Australia (27 per cent), the UK (21 per cent), France (14 per cent), Germany (11 per cent), Sweden (5 per cent), Italy (3 per cent) and Ireland (1 per cent).
However, in China, MC is not a common practice; less than 5% males are circumcised and many of these procedures were carried to alleviate medical complaints such as tight foreskin [12].
Nationals from non-European countries (mainly America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) were more likely to be circumcised than Scottish men (50.0% and 13.1%, respectively, p<0.001).
Most ritual circumcisions in Norway are performed on boys less than one year old, often soon after birth. If a boy who is to be circumcised has reached an age and level of maturity which enables them to understand the information about the operation, the boy himself must be given the information.
The rate of circumcision in Muslim nations is between 90 and 100 percent. This includes the Christians who form a significant part of some Arab states.
Yet Norway's Jewish and Muslim populations are relatively small, and the procedure is carried out on some 2,000 boys a year only - less than 1 percent of all Norwegian boys.
Circumcision is not practiced among Italy's Roman Catholic majority.
The children's hospitals of Zurich and St Gallen announced they had suspended the practice after the Cologne district court ruled last month that circumcision for religious purposes amounted to willful bodily harm which could be punishable under criminal law.
Circumcision, which rarely occurs in Vietnam, was associated with a 2 mm reduced penis length. Discussion: Findings on correlations between penile dimensions and somatometric parameters from previous studies are questionable and some measurements, such as glans dimension, have not been thoroughly investigated so far.
The frequency of circumcision varies from country to country. In New Zealand and Australia the rate is approximately 10-20% of boys but as mentioned above there are significant cultural differences.
Anti-circumcision advocates argue that it is better to forgo the procedure in infancy and allow the child to make his own decision later on. As a result of this intuitive reasoning, rates of circumcision have fallen from about 85% in 1965 to roughly 58% in 2010, the latest year for which solid data is available.
Uncircumcised and circumcised penises both work the same way, they just look a little different. Most uncircumcised people pull their foreskin back when putting on a condom, but that's a matter of personal preference. Bottom line: do what makes you feel the most comfortable.
In China, the nation with the largest population in the world, circumcision is generally treated as a selective medical intervention to treat some diseases; only 2.66% of males have been circumcised, and EIMC is not a traditional practice, except among Muslims, who account for < 3% of the population [14].
The possible medical benefits of circumcision include: A lower risk of HIV. A slightly lower risk of other sexually transmitted diseases. A slightly lower risk of urinary tract infections and penile cancer.