# How many stars are there max and average per galaxy?

What is the range of the number of stars possible in a galaxy? What is the rough average?

Googling leads to vague answers, things like "billions upon billions". But what is a more pinpointed set of numbers?

• There will be a different answer for the mean and the median – James K May 1 '20 at 7:46
• Please read astronomy.stackexchange.com/q/1083/43 - it will give you answers and the reason why you cannot have an accurate answer. – Rory Alsop May 1 '20 at 13:12
• Our galaxy is roughly an average one, it has about 250billion +/- 150billion stars. Surprisingly unexact count. – peterh May 1 '20 at 20:16

So there are many factors that play a role. Ironically, for our galaxy the number of stars is pretty uncertain since we are inside of it, and we can't infer it from the apparent mass knowing how it rotates, because the total mass and the dark matter both play a role on it. Plus the star mass range can be as wide as 0.1 to 150 (!) solar masses. So, an order of magnitude for our galaxy? $$10^{11}$$ assuming the population of stars is consistent with the H-R diagram and that half of the population are binary stars.