The average bench press is a more slippery number than it sounds, because the answer depends entirely on who you average. Across all adults, most of whom never lift, the figure is low; across people who train, it is much higher. This page reads both, so you can see where your lift sits against the group you actually belong to.
Average across everyone versus average across lifters
An average bench press taken over the whole adult population is dragged down by the majority who never touch a barbell. Taken over people who bench regularly, the average rises to roughly the boundary between the novice and intermediate bands. Knowing which group a figure describes is the difference between a number that flatters and one that means something.
How age moves the average
The average bench press by age rises through the late teens and twenties as training years and body mass accumulate, sits on a plateau through the thirties, and declines slowly after that as strength does. Reading your lift against your own age band is fairer than against a twenty-five-year-old's, and it is how the population tables are built.
The 225 question
How many men can bench 225 is really a question about the tail of the distribution. Two plates a side is a milestone precisely because it is well above the all-population average and around the advanced band for an average-sized untrained man, which is why so few who do not train can do it and so many who train for a year eventually can.
Questions people ask about average bench press
What is the average bench press for a man?
It depends on the group. Across untrained men it is modest; across men who train, it is around the novice-to-intermediate boundary for their bodyweight, which is why an average gym bench and an average population bench are very different figures.
Is the average bench press different by age?
Yes, the average bench press by age peaks in the twenties and thirties and declines gradually after, so your lift is fairest read against your own age band rather than a single all-ages figure.
What percentage of people can bench 225?
A small minority of the whole population, because most people do not train; among men who lift consistently for a year or more it becomes common, which is the point of reading the number against lifters rather than everyone.