What the study measured
Volunteers from a typing website copied 15 English sentences each, as fast and as accurately as they could. The researchers recorded 136 million keystrokes from 168,960 people, whose average age was 24.5.
| Faster than | Speed |
|---|---|
| 10% | 26 WPM |
| 25% | 38 WPM |
| 50% | 52 WPM |
| 75% | 65 WPM |
| 90% | 78 WPM |
| 95% | 85 WPM |
| 99% | 99 WPM |
The 10% and 90% rows are the values reported by the study; the others are estimated from its mean and standard deviation.
What makes people faster
People who had taken a typing course averaged 54 WPM, against 49 WPM for those who had not. Fast typists used more fingers: 8.4 on average, against 5.3 in the slowest group. Overall, 47.6% of people typed with nine or ten fingers, and the fastest typists also made the fewest mistakes.
Is 40 WPM good?
In the study, 40 WPM is faster than about 28% of people, 60 WPM faster than about 66% and 80 WPM faster than about 92%. Anything above 52 WPM is faster than average.
How our test compares
Our typing test uses common words of your language instead of sentences, and counts five characters as one word, as the study did. At the end, your result is placed on the study’s curve.
Questions and answers
What is the average typing speed?
About 52 words per minute, in a study of 168,000 people published in 2018. Half of them typed between about 38 and 65 WPM.
What is a good typing speed?
Anything above 52 WPM is faster than average. Above 78 WPM you are among the fastest 10%.
How can I type faster?
Use all ten fingers, keep your eyes on the screen and practice a few minutes a day. Work on accuracy first: speed follows.
Sources
- Dhakal, Feit, Kristensson, Oulasvirta: Observations on Typing from 136 Million Keystrokes (CHI 2018)
- Aalto University: project page of the study