Human sperm cells contain a total of 23 chromosomes. This is half the number of chromosomes found in most of the body’s cells, which typically have 46 chromosomes arranged in 23 pairs.
During the process of meiosis, which is how sperm cells are produced in the male reproductive system, the chromosome number is reduced by half. This is crucial because, when a sperm cell fertilizes an egg cell (which also contains 23 chromosomes), the resulting zygote will have the full complement of 46 chromosomes.
The 23 chromosomes in a human sperm cell include one sex chromosome, which can be either an X or a Y. This determines the sex of the resulting offspring; an X from the sperm with an X from the egg results in a female (XX), while a Y from the sperm with an X from the egg results in a male (XY).