Fact · Typing and writing speed
20.2words per minute
In the online study, typing speed varied widely, with a standard deviation of 20.2 words per minute around the 51.56 mean.
Checked against its source on October 16, 2026
In the source's own words
“The average WPM value for participants is 51.56 (SD = 20.2).”
Observations on Typing from 136 Million Keystrokes, Vivek Dhakal et al., CHI 2018, ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2018, Performance Measures: Words per minute.
Open the original (DOI 10.1145/3173574.3174220)- What it measures
- Each participant typed 15 sentences, and speed is their words per minute over the test.
- What it does not show
- A standard deviation describes spread only. The distribution is not normal, so it does not give percentiles on its own.
Source
Used to calculate
- In the online typing study, 100 words per minute is about 2.4 standard deviations above the average typist.
- In the online typing study, 30 words per minute is about 1.1 standard deviations below the average typist.
- In the online typing study, 50 words per minute is about 0.08 standard deviations below the average typist.
- In the online typing study, 60 words per minute is about 0.4 standard deviations above the average typist.
- In the online typing study, 80 words per minute is about 1.4 standard deviations above the average typist.
- A one-hour recording at a 150 words per minute speaking rate holds about 9,000 words, which takes about 175 minutes to type at the 51.56 words per minute online average.
Cited on
- Average Typing Speed: WPM by Age, Gender and DeviceGuide
- Transcription Jobs: Pay, Skills and Getting StartedGuide
- How much do transcriptionists make?Question
- Is 60 words per minute a good typing speed?Question
- Is transcription a good side hustle?Question
- What percentile is my typing speed?Question
- What typing speed do you need for transcription?Question