Fact · Typing and writing speed
51.6words per minute
In the typing speed on computer keyboards dataset, the 5 published figures for “General adults” have a median of 51.6 words per minute, ranging from 26 to 58.9.
Calculated from 5 data points on October 19, 2026
- What it measures
- Each figure is one row of the dataset: a published measurement for a stated group, traced to its source. The median is the middle value of the 5 figures for this group.
- How it is calculated
- Median of 5 values (26, 35, 51.6, 57.8, 58.9) = 51.6.
- What it does not show
- Studies measure different tasks (copying is faster than composing), count words differently, and recruit different people; online typing tests attract people who practise. Treat a median across studies as a typical reported figure, not a population average.
A statistic of the dataset Typing Speed Statistics: Average WPM by Group, calculated by code from its published rows.
Calculated from
- In a study of 136 million keystrokes from an online typing test, the average typing speed of participants was 51.56 words per minute.
- In the same online study, the slowest 10 percent of typists were those below about 26 words per minute.
- In the same task, typists who had not learned touch typing entered text at an average of 58.93 words per minute.
- In the transcription task, touch typists entered text at an average of 57.8 words per minute.
- In an analysis of 506,024 typing speed tests taken on Ratatype in April 2026, the median typing speed fell in the range of 30 to 40 words per minute, which Ratatype rounds to about 35.