Fact · Typing and writing speed
37.8words per minute
In the Palin study, native English users were the fastest group, at 37.8 words per minute, and people who never type in English were the slowest, at 25.6.
Checked against its source on October 16, 2026
In the source's own words
“Native users of English were the fastest typists (M = 37.8, SD = 13.6) ... the slowest (M = 25.6, SD = 12.4)”
How do People Type on Mobile Devices? Observations from a Study with 37,000 Volunteers, Kseniia Palin et al., Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (MobileHCI 2019), 2019, Results, English experience.
Open the original- What it measures
- Participants reported their level of English experience. Speed fell with each step down in experience.
- What it does not show
- Self-reported experience. It is an association across a self-selected sample.