Is your proposal a potential Guinness World Records™ achievement?

As we do not wish for you to waste your time unnecessarily, by making a claim that we will not accept, we recommend that if you are making a claim/proposal for what you believe to be a new category, you take the time to review the following checklist. It gives examples of records that Guinness World Records would not accept in a number of areas that are very popular.

AGE

Record categories which we do not monitor in this area include the following:

  • Youngest or oldest to walk, swim, read, count, etc.
  • Any record which has a minimum age requirement (youngest scuba diver, licensed pilot, etc.).
  • Youngest or oldest variants of existing categories (i.e. longest tongue for a 14 year old), we generally only consider such records when the journeys involved are global in scale (e.g. youngest to climb Mt Everest; youngest to walk to the North/South Pole and claimants are 16 and above).

ANIMALS

We do not accept any claims for the following:

  • Records based on the killing or harming of animals.
  • We do not endorse speed records for travelling over large distances on horseback, because of concerns over the welfare of the animals involved.
  • We have discontinued accepting claims for heaviest or lightest pets.
  • We do not monitor separate categories for different breeds, only absolute records such as ‘longest ever dog’ and ‘oldest cat living’.
  • Endurance records, such as ‘longest time living with snakes’.

ART

  • We do not consider any claims for drawing/painting, other than what might fall within broader records, such as the largest painting in the world.
  • In the case of small origami, artwork or articles (unless working at a microscopic level), quality cannot be objectively proven and it reaches a point where it becomes impossible to judge what is the smallest item in the world for a particular object. We do however study which are the largest objects in the world.

ATTENDANCE (to school, to work)

  • We only monitor records regarding the overall working career or study duration, rather than perfect attendance as it is very common to have perfect attendance records.

BUILDING DEMOLITIONS

  • We do not consider any such proposals for world record recognition as no two building projects are exactly alike, and cannot therefore be objectively compared to one another.

CHARITY

  • With charity events the only records we recognise are for the amounts of money raised, rather than for the types of activity.

    • QUALIFIED - DISABILITY

    • While we do not want to take away from any achievements, records which are qualified by disability or personal handicap cannot be accommodated in a reference work as general as Guinness World Records.

    HUMAN BEING

    • We do not accept any claims for beauty as it is not objectively measurable.
    • Fastest, quickest or longest birth is not categories we recognize.
    • Cancer survival - due to the varying types of cancer and degrees of severity they are found at, it is not possible to compare fairly between each individual case.
    • We do not currently recognise 'gluttony' records whereby people consume mass amounts of food.
    • We do not accept claims for elbow licking.
    • Due to the medical condition elephantiasis, we do not monitor a category for largest head.
    • We do not longer accept public claims for hunger strikes or fasting.
    • Massage marathons – we cannot visually judge style and form as to be correctly done for a long time.
    • We do not recognize medical records like the most operations in a short time span.
    • We do not accept claims for longest sleep or sleeplessness.
    • We do not accept claims for thinnest people.

    LITERATURE/LANGUAGE/PUBLISHING

    • We no longer accept any email or postal based records, such as chain letters or similar variations.
    • With all handwriting related claims, we cannot possibly standardise levels of legibility, neatness etc, therefore we cannot accept claims for smallest handwriting.
    • We do not monitor categories for most generations with the same name.
    • We do not consider claims for longest or shortest poem.
    • We do not accept records that are qualified by subject matter.
    • We do not accept claims for silent reading.

    MUSIC

    • With records regarding listening to music or the radio for the longest time there is no way of proving that the participants are actually listening to the music and indeed concentrating on this.
    • We do not consider any claims for longest or shortest song, or most songs written, other than what might ordinarily fall within our broader music records (i.e. most people singing).
    • We are unable to consider claims relating to jam sessions or improvisation as it is impossible to ensure the musical proficiency and quality of such performances.

    PLANTS

    • We do not monitor small plant/fruit/vegetable records, mainly because the challenge is to grow the largest. In addition, a seed is arguably the smallest of the variety.

    QUALIFICATIONS

    • We do not accept records regarding qualifications, as it is difficult to quantify. Each country and each academic institution has its own methods for awarding course credits, degrees or qualifications and therefore no standard can be drawn on which to base a record.

    QUALIFIED - RACE

    • We do not make any distinction between the various races or nationalities of claimants.

    QUALIFIED – UNIQUENESS/UNUSUAL/ORIGINALITY/ONLY

    • 'Uniqueness, unusual, originality, or luck' are not objectively quantifiable and cannot therefore form the basis of a world record. It must be remembered that every record we publish is open to be challenged in future, and it must be possible to compare these future challenges objectively and fairly with the current record.
    • We also do not monitor any categories for ‘only’. An “only” is not necessarily, in itself, a record — records have to be breakable, measurable and comparable, e.g. tallest, fastest, heaviest, etc., and tend to have arisen as a result of a great deal of (usually international) interest and competition.

    THEME PARK RIDES

    • We only list two records for this category. The first is for the longest continuous ride on any roller coaster that meets certain requirements, and the second is for the longest continuous ride on a Ferris wheel meeting particular requirements.

    TRANSPORT

    • We accept cramming records only for small iconic vehicles such as the VW Beetle and the Mini.
    • We do not accept records for car sales as there are too many variables: model, price, location, time of day, the weather.
    • We do not endorse records which involve driving between two points in the least amount of time out of concern for public safety and the legality of encouraging such events.
    • We source all our aviation performance records directly from the FAI. We would therefore suggest that you contact your local FAI-affiliated flying organisation for further information on such records.
    • We must out of necessity select only those which are significant internationally (e.g. trans-continental journeys) or which over time have become the subject of much international competition (e.g. swimming across the English Channel, or sailing across the Atlantic).