On the average genus of a graph

Not all rational numbers are possibilities for the average genus of an individual graph. The smallest such numbers are determined, and varied examples are constructed to demonstrate that a single value of average genus can be shared by arbitrarily many different graphs. It is proved that the number 1 is a limit point of the set of possible values for average genus and that the complete graph K₄ is the only 3-connected graph whose average genus is less than 1.