How Fast Does the Average Person Type?
Typing is one of the most common cognitive-motor tasks in the modern world. Billions of people type every day on keyboards and touchscreens, yet surprisingly few know how their speed compares to the general population. The short answer: the average typing speed for the general population hovers around 40 words per minute (WPM). But that headline figure obscures enormous variation based on age, profession, experience, and even the keyboard layout you use.
In this article, we break down average typing speeds across every major demographic, explain the research behind the numbers, and help you understand where you fall — and how to improve.
What Counts as a "Word"?
Before diving into the data, a quick clarification. In typing tests, a "word" is standardized to five characters (including spaces). So the sentence "The quick brown fox" (20 characters) counts as four words. This standardization allows fair comparison across languages and content types. When we say someone types 40 WPM, we mean they produce roughly 200 characters per minute.
Average Typing Speed by Age
Age is one of the strongest predictors of typing speed, largely because it correlates with years of practice and exposure to keyboards. Here is what the data shows:
| Age Group | Average WPM Range | Notes |
|-----------|-------------------|-------|
| 8-12 years | 15-25 WPM | Still developing fine motor skills; limited keyboard exposure in many cases. Schools that teach dedicated typing courses see students at the higher end. |
| 13-17 years | 30-45 WPM | The "digital native" effect kicks in here. Teens who grew up with smartphones often type faster on mobile but may lag on physical keyboards if they have not practiced. |
| 18-24 years | 40-55 WPM | Peak learning window. College students and young professionals who type daily tend to plateau near 50 WPM unless they deliberately practice. |
| 25-40 years | 40-60 WPM | The broadest range. This cohort includes everyone from casual emailers to professional coders. Those whose careers demand heavy keyboard use often cluster in the 50-60 WPM zone. |
| 40-60 years | 35-50 WPM | A slight decline begins for those who do not type regularly, driven more by reduced practice than by neurological slowing. Professionals who have typed for decades may still exceed 60 WPM. |
| 60+ years | 25-40 WPM | Motor speed and reaction time decline contribute here, but the biggest factor is often reduced daily keyboard use. Active typists in this age group can maintain speeds well above 40 WPM. |
The key takeaway: age-related decline in typing speed is driven far more by practice frequency than by biology. A 65-year-old who types every day will almost certainly outperform a 25-year-old who rarely uses a keyboard.
Average Typing Speed by Profession
Your job might be the single best predictor of how fast you type, simply because daily practice hours vary enormously by profession.
Data Entry Specialists: 60-80 WPM
Data entry professionals sit at the top of the speed charts among non-competitive typists. Their work demands sustained, accurate transcription — often for hours at a time. Many employers set a minimum requirement of 60 WPM with 95%+ accuracy. Top performers regularly exceed 80 WPM during peak output.
Programmers and Software Developers: 50-70 WPM
Programmers present an interesting case. While they spend much of their day at a keyboard, raw typing speed is less important than it might seem. A significant portion of coding involves thinking, reading documentation, and debugging rather than sustained character output. That said, developers who can type fluently at 60+ WPM report a noticeable "flow state" benefit — the code appears on screen at roughly the speed of thought, reducing the friction between ideation and implementation.
Writers, Journalists, and Content Creators: 50-65 WPM
Professional writers tend to cluster in the 50-65 WPM range during drafting. However, their effective output (words that survive editing) is often much lower, as the creative process involves frequent pausing, rethinking, and revision. Journalists working under deadline pressure often push into the 60-70 WPM range for short bursts.
General Office Workers: 35-50 WPM
The majority of office workers — those who type emails, reports, and spreadsheets but whose primary job is not typing — fall in the 35-50 WPM range. This group makes up the bulk of the "average" that produces the 40 WPM population figure.
Students: 30-45 WPM
Students at the secondary and post-secondary level typically type between 30 and 45 WPM. This range is heavily influenced by whether the student received formal typing instruction. Students who learned proper touch-typing technique tend to sit at the higher end; those who use self-taught hunt-and-peck methods cluster at the lower end.
Average Typing Speed by Experience Level
Perhaps the most useful lens for understanding typing speed is the typist's technique and experience level, regardless of age or profession.
Hunt-and-Peck Typists: 15-25 WPM
The hunt-and-peck method — visually searching for each key and pressing it with one or two fingers — is the slowest common technique. These typists must constantly shift their gaze between the keyboard and the screen, creating a bottleneck that limits speed regardless of how long they have been typing. Some hunt-and-peck typists who have used the method for decades still plateau around 25 WPM.
Casual Typists: 30-40 WPM
Casual typists may use a hybrid approach — they know where most keys are from memory but still look down occasionally, and they may use only 4-6 fingers. This method is common among people who type regularly but never received formal training.
Touch Typists: 50-70 WPM
Touch typing — using all ten fingers with each finger assigned to specific keys, without looking at the keyboard — is the dividing line between casual and proficient typists. Learning touch typing typically takes 20-40 hours of deliberate practice, and the speed gains are substantial and permanent. Most people who invest the time to learn touch typing settle into a comfortable cruising speed of 50-70 WPM.
Professional Typists: 70-100 WPM
At this level, typing is essentially transparent — the typist's fingers move at the speed of thought with zero conscious attention to the keyboard. Professional transcriptionists, court reporters (on standard keyboards), and experienced developers often operate in this range. Accuracy at this speed is typically 97%+ on familiar content.
Competitive Typists: 100-200+ WPM
The world of competitive typing is a different realm entirely. Top competitors on platforms like TypeRacer and MonkeyType regularly exceed 150 WPM, with the fastest recorded speeds exceeding 200 WPM in sustained tests. The current world record for typing speed on a conventional keyboard is over 300 WPM in short bursts. These speeds require not only perfect touch-typing technique but also exceptional pattern recognition, as fast typists often process words as single units rather than individual characters.
What the Research Says: The Dhakal et al. (2018) Study
The most comprehensive modern study of typing behavior comes from Dhakal, Szeszel, Krasich, Weaver, and Fain (2018), who analyzed typing data from over 136,000 participants through an online platform. Their key findings:
- The overall average typing speed was 51.56 WPM (note: this skewed higher than the general population average because participants self-selected into a typing test, meaning they were likely more keyboard-proficient than average).
- Touch typists were significantly faster, but the study found that the number of fingers used mattered less than consistency of finger-to-key mapping. Some fast typists used only 6 fingers but always used the same finger for the same key.
- Self-taught typists who developed consistent habits performed comparably to formally trained touch typists. The critical factor was not the number of fingers but the automaticity of the motor patterns.
- Speed and accuracy were positively correlated — faster typists also tended to make fewer errors, contradicting the common assumption that speed and accuracy trade off against each other.
This study challenged the traditional view that "proper" ten-finger touch typing is the only path to fast typing. What matters most is consistency and automaticity — your fingers need to go to the same keys the same way every time, building the muscle memory that allows your conscious mind to focus on content rather than mechanics.
QWERTY vs. Dvorak vs. Colemak: Does Layout Matter?
A perennial question in the typing world is whether switching to an alternative keyboard layout will make you faster. The three most common layouts are:
QWERTY is the standard layout used by over 99% of English-language typists. It was designed in the 1870s for mechanical typewriters and has persisted through sheer inertia.
Dvorak (patented 1936) places the most common English letters on the home row, theoretically reducing finger travel distance by up to 60%. Proponents argue this should translate to higher speeds and lower injury risk.
Colemak (2006) is a modern compromise that changes only 17 keys from QWERTY, making it easier to learn while capturing most of Dvorak's ergonomic benefits.
So what does the evidence say? The speed differences between layouts are modest at best. Studies comparing experienced typists on each layout find that the ceiling speeds are essentially the same — the world's fastest typists exist on all three layouts. The primary benefit of Dvorak and Colemak appears to be comfort and reduced finger strain during extended typing sessions, not raw speed. If you already type proficiently on QWERTY, switching layouts is unlikely to make you meaningfully faster and will cost you weeks or months of reduced productivity during the transition.
That said, if you are just learning to type or if you suffer from repetitive strain injuries, Dvorak or Colemak may be worth exploring for their ergonomic advantages.
How to Improve Your Typing Speed
If you are below the average for your age group or profession, here are evidence-based strategies:
1. Learn touch typing. If you are still looking at the keyboard, this is the single highest-impact change you can make. Use a structured program and practice 15-20 minutes daily for a month.
2. Focus on accuracy first. The Dhakal et al. study confirmed that speed and accuracy are correlated. Trying to type faster while making more errors is counterproductive — your effective WPM (accounting for corrections) may actually decrease.
3. Practice with real content. Typing random words or pangrams builds mechanical skill, but practicing with content you would normally type (emails, code, prose) builds the word-level pattern recognition that separates fast typists from very fast typists.
4. Test yourself regularly. You cannot improve what you do not measure. Take a baseline test, then retest weekly to track progress and identify weak spots.
5. Work on your weakest keys. Most typists have specific letters or bigrams (two-letter combinations) that consistently slow them down. Identify yours and drill them specifically.
Where Do You Stand?
Curious how your typing speed compares? Take our free typing speed test to get an accurate measurement of your WPM, accuracy, and consistency — with detailed breakdowns of your performance by character and word length.
Whether you are a hunt-and-peck typist looking to level up or a seasoned touch typist chasing the 100 WPM mark, knowing your baseline is the first step toward improvement.