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Average Typing Speed and Words Per Minute Explained

Posted on by Das Keyboard Staff

If you sit at a keyboard all day and happen to think you are a speedy typist, then maybe you wonder what the average typing speed is, and how many words per minute you type. To reach the fastest typing speeds on a standard keyboard you would need to average around 180 WPM (words per minute) on medium length and long-form content. If you are typing at this level then you are likely one of the fastest typists in the world, typing faster than 99% of typists worldwide.

Even if you are not an elite speed typist reaching mind-boggling speeds, how fast you type may still be very important for work or school. If you apply for a technological administration, writing, or call center job you may even be asked how fast you type or take a typing test. Having a good understanding of the average typing speed will help you see if this is an area you are strong in, or if it is a place you should try to improve. 

In this article you will learn: 

What Words Per Minute Means

Words per minute, or WPM, refers to the number of words processed in one minute while typing, writing, or reading. Average typing speed can also be used to determine efficiency on a 10-key number pad or the alphabet, but it is most commonly used regarding alphanumeric keys.

A word in the calculation of words per minute is considered the equivalent of five keystrokes including spaces, letters, and punctuation. A series of shorter words like, ‘look at the cat’ is four words, but so is a single word like ‘triskaidekaphobia’. It’s also worth noting that ‘keystrokes’ do not include keys like Delete, Backspace, Caps Lock, or Shift. 

When you factor in mistakes it changes your words per minute. Most people use the term WPM to refer to a ‘Net WPM’ or adjusted WPM once you deduct the errors from your ‘Gross WPM’ (WPM according to all keystrokes). Most of the time, a computer program or website will do these calculations for you, but to demonstrate, let’s say you typed a total of 80 words in one minute.

  • Gross WPM: 80/1 = 80 words per minute.
  • Net WPM with 10 mistakes (80-10)/1) = 70 words per minute.

In some instances, the typing program you are using will not let you continue typing without correcting your errors, which means that your Net WPM will be the only calculation that is determined. Most people will have a slightly lower WPM when you are forced to correct mistakes, vs. a program that allows you to continue to type without correcting your mistakes.

Typing Accuracy

If you look up WPM statistics you’ll often see an accuracy percentage, which is calculated by dividing the number of correct keystrokes by the total keystrokes.

  • 98 correct keystrokes / 100 total keystrokes = 98% accuracy.

Typing tests almost always show accuracy, and accuracy is a very important part of typing fast and one of the best ways to increase your WPM is to focus on improving accuracy. By slowing down how fast you type and focussing on accuracy when you practice you will improve your average WPM speeds easier than only trying to type as fast as you can.

Average WPM Speed 

The QWERTY keyboard layout is standard on nearly every keyboard and phone in the English-speaking world. Currently, the average typing speed on a QWERTY layout for an adult who uses typing for their job is around 40 WPM. Touch typists using the home-row method are typically faster typists because they don’t look down at the keyboard and type from muscle memory. Hunt and peck typists typically use two-fingers and look at the keys as they type, so it takes them longer to find the letters. 

While the average typing speed is 40 WPM, having a typing speed of this level may not be fast enough for some professions. Secretaries and receptionists are normally required to type at 65 WPM or higher and legal or administrative assistants may be required to type as high as 100 WPM. Court reporters have the fastest WPM for any profession at 225 WPM, although they type on a stenotype keyboard. This gives them a huge advantage versus a typist using a standard keyboard because a stenotype keyboard uses shorthand and types syllables rather than letters. 

Some factors should always be taken into account when looking at a typing speed, such as what type of text was typed when a WPM speed was reached. Burst typing uses a simple one-sentence, or 10-15 second piece of text and produces the fastest typing speeds because you don’t need to have stamina or consistency to type a small piece of text. Difficult and long-form text will have much slower WPM speeds.

One example of a very difficult, long-form piece of text is the infamous “pink ping pong ball” quote that was used in the 2020 Ultimate Typing Championship where the winner, Anthony Ermolin still had a 165.4 WPM speed with 98.5 % accuracy.

The Pink Ping Pong Ball Quote

1.a) [MAN] A man ordered 2,000 drums of pink ping pong balls in Paris, France. Each drum contained 100 pink ping pong balls. He paid $120 (80 Euros!) per drum, which means he spent $240,000 on 200,000 pink ping pong balls. 1.b) {BALL} These pink ping pong balls measured 40mm (how many inches?) and were given a 1 star rating [1 star?]. [FRIEND] His friends all asked him, “why did you order so many pink ping pong balls, how can you afford to spend that much, and what are you going to do with them?” His answer: “I’ll tell you tomorrow.” [MAN] Every day his friends asked the same question, and every day he gave the same answer: “I’ll tell you tomorrow.” {BALL} The pink ping pong balls started decreasing in quantity: only 189,000 left, and then only 172,000, and then 163,000, and then 147,000, etc. {BALL} One day 90% of the pink ping pong balls were gone (100% – 10% = 90% right?). His friends were really feeling frustrated with him now and demanded an explanation, “Tell us what the &^%$ [blip] you’re doing with all of these @#^& pink ping pong balls!” [MAN] The man’s response: “I spent $240,000 on 200,000 pink ping pong balls for a project. I have now used 90% of those, as you have observed. I promise to tell you tomorrow.” [FRIEND] His friends decided to wait one more day and pronounce the alphabet to kill some time: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ then wrote a code word with strange signs: /a/&B#R{+1}>>[Bb] = X0 – 3 + @a rooftop ^ 32 + 12443678923458789 && 1 2 3 < 4. . The next day they were gathered in the man’s house for the big revelation. The man stated, “Of the 200,000 pink ping pong balls I ordered I have 137 left. Would anyone like them?” His friends all groaned and said, “[—] no! Give us an answer!” The man began again, “Friends, I am about to unveil a great invention.” He took a deep breath…and died. His 7 friends would never know why the man spent $240,000 on 200,000 pink ping pong balls, and neither will you. That all our knowledge begins with experience there can be no doubt. For how is it possible that the faculty of cognition should be awakened into exercise otherwise than by means of objects which affect our senses, and partly of themselves produce representations, partly rouse our powers of understanding into activity, to compare, to connect, or to separate these, and so to convert the raw material of our sensuous impressions into a knowledge of objects, which is called experience? In respect of time, therefore, no knowledge of ours is antecedent to experience, but begins with it. But, though all our knowledge begins with experience, it by no means follows that all arises out of experience. For, on the contrary, it is quite possible that our empirical knowledge is a compound of that which we receive through impressions, and that which the faculty of cognition supplies from itself (sensuous impressions giving merely the occasion), an addition which we cannot distinguish from the original element given by sense, till long practice has made us attentive to, and skillful in separating it. It is, therefore, a question which requires close investigation, and is not to be answered at first sight whether there exists a knowledge altogether independent of experience, and even of all sensuous impressions? Knowledge of this kind is called a priori, in contradistinction to empirical knowledge, which has its sources a posteriori, that is, in experience. But the expression, “a priori,” is not as yet definite enough, adequately to indicate the whole meaning of the question above started. For, in speaking of knowledge which has its sources in experience, we are wont to say that this or that may be known a priori, because we do not derive this knowledge immediately from experience, but from a general rule, which, however, we have itself borrowed from experience. Thus, if a man undermined his house, we say, “he might know a priori that it would have fallen;” that is, he needed not to have waited for the experience that it did actually fall. But still, a priori, he could not know even this much. For, that bodies are heavy, and, consequently, that they fall when their supports are taken away, must have been known to him previously, by means of experience. By the term “knowledge a priori,” therefore, we shall in the sequel understand, not such as is independent of this or that kind of experience, but such as is absolutely so of all experience. Opposed to this is empirical knowledge, or that which is possible only a posteriori, that is, through experience. Knowledge a priori is either pure or impure. Pure knowledge a priori is that with which no empirical element is mixed up. For example, the proposition, “Every change has a cause,” is a proposition a priori, but impure, because change is a conception which can only be derived from experience.

As you can see from the above text, there are a lot of factors that go into truly calculating an average WPM speed. The important thing is to set a benchmark for yourself by continuing to calculate your average WPM using the same method, and by typing on similar length and difficulty of text. This way you will have an accurate picture of what your current average WPM speed is and will be able to see progress made with practice.

Why WPM Matters

Having a fast WPM speed originally became a unique and prestigious skill when typing on typewriters in the early 1900s was popular and there was a rise of high-profile secretarial schools and the widespread implementation of the Morse Code. These were sought-after jobs and important to have a fast typist when dictating or communicating during an emergency. In the 1960s typing’s popularity grew as a spectator sport as seen during the World Championship which was held in Paris during the International Federation of Shorthand and Typewriting, bringing typing to the forefront of the public’s attention. 

In 2010 the first Ultimate Typing Championship was held and to this day it has remained wildly popular with over 15 million views. The Ultimate Typing Championship was held again in 2020 with over 400 participants from around the world. This event showed that typing was still very popular and with the event recap video gaining over 100,000 views in the first 6-months after the event. 

Today with a computer in almost every household WPM is a common marker of productivity. Access to computers has rapidly increased work efficiency as well as a dramatic rise in the average words per minute. Hiring directors and managers expect their employees to be on top of this skill to improve their team’s productivity.

If you work on a computer daily then your typing speed is a factor of how productive you are every day. If you can increase your typing speed by just 10% from 50 WPM to 55 WPM this will in theory allow you to produce more code if you’re a programmer, articles if you’re writer, spend less time answering emails if you’re an entrepreneur, and get more work done if you’re an administrative assistant.

How to Take a WPM Test

Practicing and tracking your WPM has become more popular over the years, some people even include their WPM on their resumes. Free typing speed tests have become widespread and help people test and improve their typing skills. Here are some of the most popular typing sites with the sizes of their audiences according to SimilarWeb.com:  

The fastest typists frequent these websites and post remarkable speeds, such as the current 60-second leader on Monkeytype, spekap, who holds the top spot by a very slim margin with a 254.80 WPM speed and 99.38% accuracy. 

Some sites offer statistics that show you which words or phrases are most frequently misspelled or that are typed the slowest. You can then practice these words to help you improve and track your progress to see how your WPM improves over time. All of these sites are excellent places to practice, race against other typists, or try to achieve a position on their leaderboards.

Do Mechanical Keyboards Improve WPM?

Improving your WPM relies almost entirely on practice, but the right keyboard may also help improve your WPM. You will type faster and more accurately when you are more comfortable with your keyboard and are used to typing on it. Many people prefer mechanical keyboards for typing because they require less pressure to type on than a standard membrane keyboard. In addition, keyboards with key switches such as Cherry MX Blue or Brown produce tactile feedback and an audible click that some typists find helpful when typing, while others prefer linear switches with no tactility and may prefer a switch with less travel that is designed for speed such as the Cherry MX Speed Silver.

Mechanical keyboards also register keystrokes in less time than membrane keyboards, making them faster, even if it’s only by milliseconds. This split-second processing time is important for gamers and competitive typists where every fraction of a second matters. Most mechanical keyboards also have NKRO, which allows very fast typists to type as many letters as they’d like simultaneously or within a hundredth of a second, thereby allowing the typist to type 8 keys at the same time.

Whether you type for work, school, or as a hobby, being aware of your average typing speed and working to improve your WPM is an excellent way to increase your overall productivity and enjoyment of typing. If you just started typing then there will be a learning curve to learn how to type without looking down at the keys. New typists will show the largest gains in their WPM speeds as it will be much easier to go from 20 WPM to 40 WPM than it will to go from 80 WPM to 100 WPM. When your average WPM speed increases over 50 WPM the gains in speed will take more time and practice, but by focussing a portion of your time on accuracy it will be easier to increase your WPM. For more sophisticated typing tips you can join one of the many online communities such as the 10FastFingers or Keyma.sh discord server, and you can find more typing tips on the Das Keyboard blog.