Temporary Files

PostgreSQL 12
I just increased my work_mem to 24 MB. I cleared my statistics. I then went back later and saw the following:

Temporary files: 21
Size of temporary files 451 MB.

If you divide 451 by 21 you get 21.4 . I would have expected to see an average size greater than 24 MB. This implies to me that PostgreSQL is creating temp files that are smaller than 24 MB.

What am I not understanding?

Thanks,

LANCE CAMPBELL<https://directory.illinois.edu/person/lance>
Software Architect

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