The World Stress Map (WSM) project is a global compilation of information on the contemporary crustal stress field from a wide range of stress indicators. The WSM database release 2008 contains 21,750 stress data records that are quality-ranked using an updated and refined quality-ranking scheme. Almost 17,000 of these data records have A-C quality and are considered to record the orientation of maximum horizontal compressional stress SH to within +-25 deg. As this is almost a triplication of data records compared with the first WSM database release in 1992, we reinvestigate the spatial wave-length of the stress patterns with a statistical analysis on a global 0.5 deg grid. The resulting smoothed global stress map displays both; the mean SH orientation that follows from the maximum smoothing radius for which the standard deviation is <25 deg and a countour map that displays the wave-length of the stress pattern. This smoothed global map confirms that long wave-length stress patterns (>2000 km) exist fo