Porous spherical silica, catalyst carrier, cosmetic, analytical column, polish, resin composition, and method of producing porous spherical silica

A porous spherical silica, wherein

• a 50% cumulative diameter (D50) of volume based particle size distribution measured by a Coulter counter method is in a range of 2 μm and 200 μm,
• a ratio (D10/D90) of a 10% cumulative diameter (D10) of the distribution to a 90% cumulative diameter (D90) of the distribution is at least 0.3,
• a pore volume by a BJH method is 0.5 mL/g to 8 mL/g,
• a mode pore radius by the BJH method is 5 nm to 50 nm,
• a specific surface area by a BET method is 50 m2/g to 400 m2/g, and
• an arithmetic mean value of “compressive test forces when specimens are found to break” is 1.0×101 mN to 2.0×101 mN, the specimens being ten particles, the compressive test forces being obtained according to a method specified in JIS Z8844 when a loading speed is 0.4462 mN/sec,
• is a number of particles each having a circularity of at most 0.7 is at most 20, the particles being among 200 particles observed in an SEM image, and
• an alkali metal content is at most 50 ppm.