Wirds an readin

Whit’s the average ty-pin speed?

A muckle online study fand a mean o 51.56 wirds per meenit amang 168,960 volunteers copyin English sentences on physical keyboards. It’s a useful pynt o reference for that task, but the volunteers werenae a representative sample o awbody that types. Paper

Test yersel (Inglis)
An open buik wi a fleein blue sphere an a white puzzle piece.

Bi the Helibrain teamLast checked

Key evidence an nummers

MeasureValueWhit wis measurt?
Mean ty-pin speed51.56 WPMEnglish sentence transcription.
Participants analysed168,960Online volunteers that chose tae tak pairt, maistly teenagers an young adults.
A ty-pin “wird”5 charactersA staundart unit, no a wird fae a dictionar.

Soorce: original paper, performance measures an results. WPM means wirds per meenit.

Whit affects it?

The text, mistaks an ty-pin technique aa matter. The study measurt copyin, no makkin up ideas, an its speed calculation timed the spell atween the first an last keypress; results uisin anither method micht differ. Paper

Gie the related free test a try

Ty-pin speed test

Test yersel: ty-pin speed (Inglis). Keep the leid, keyboard an correction rules the same when ye compare runs.

Test yersel (Inglis)

Common questions

Is this the average for aw adults?

Naw. The sample wis made up o fowk that chose tae veisit a ty-pin site an dae the study.

Dae the same benchmark apply tae a phone?

The study uised physical keyboards. We dinnae apply its average tae ty-pin on a touchscreen.

Why micht anither test shaw a different WPM?

Check the text, timing an rules for mistaks. A shared unit disnae guarantee the test conditions are the same.

Sources

Cite this page: Whit’s the average ty-pin speed?. Helibrain. 2026. https://helibrain.com/sco/answers/average-typing-speed. CC BY 4.0.

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