How often do Bitcoin blocks occur?

In the Bitcoin network, transactions are grouped into blocks.

On average, a new Bitcoin block is mined every 10 minutes.

While the average block time is designed to be 10 minutes, the actual time between blocks can vary due to the probabilistic nature of the mining process. Mining a block involves solving a complex mathematical problem, which is essentially a guessing game. Miners are competing to find a valid hash, a unique alphanumeric string, that satisfies the current difficulty level.

Since finding a valid hash is based on chance, the time it takes to mine a block can be shorter or longer than 10 minutes. For example, one block could be mined in just 6 minutes if a miner happens to find the correct hash quickly. Conversely, another block might take 15 minutes or more if miners are struggling to find a valid hash. Over time, however, these fluctuations balance out, resulting in the average block time of approximately 10 minutes.