Fact · Typing and writing speed
37.7words per minute
In the Palin study, participants who reported using two fingers averaged 37.7 words per minute, significantly faster than the 29.2 of those who used only one finger.
Checked against its source on October 16, 2026
In the source's own words
“Participants who reported to use two fingers were significantly faster than those who used only one finger (M = 37.7, SD = 13.2 versus M = 29.2, SD = 10.7, p < 0.001, d = 0.66)”
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, finger usage.
Open the original- What it measures
- Self-reported posture in an online typing test on the participants' own phones.
- What it does not show
- Self-reported posture, in a self-selected sample. The paper's posture breakdown also finds that left index finger typists were slowest.