Word typed per minute

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«wpm» redirects here. For other uses, see WPM.

Words per minute, commonly abbreviated wpm (sometimes uppercased WPM), is a measure of words processed in a minute, often used as a measurement of the speed of typing, reading or Morse code sending and receiving.

Alphanumeric entry[edit]

Since words vary in length, for the purpose of measurement of text entry the definition of each «word» is often standardized to be five characters or keystrokes long in English,^[1] including spaces and punctuation. For example, under such a method applied to plain English text the phrase «I run» counts as one word, but «rhinoceros» and «let’s talk» would both count as two.

Karat et al. found in one study of average computer users in 1999 that the average rate for transcription was 32.5 words per minute, and 19.0 words per minute for composition.^[2] In the same study, when the group was divided into «fast», «moderate», and «slow» groups, the average speeds were 40 wpm, 35 wpm, and 23 wpm, respectively.

With the onset of the era of desktop computers, fast typing skills became much more widespread.

Typically, professional typists type at speeds of 43 to 80 wpm, while some positions can require 80 to 95 (usually the minimum required for dispatch positions and other time-sensitive typing jobs), and some advanced typists work at speeds above 120 wpm.^[3] Two-finger typists, sometimes also referred to as «hunt and peck» typists, commonly reach sustained speeds of about 37 wpm for memorized text and 27 wpm when copying text, but in bursts may be able to reach much higher speeds.^[4] From the 1920s through the 1970s, typing speed (along with shorthand speed) was an important secretarial qualification, and typing contests were popular and often publicized by typewriter companies as promotional tools.

Stenotype[edit]

Stenotype keyboards enable the trained user to input text as fast as 360 wpm at very high accuracy for an extended period, which is sufficient for real-time activities such as court reporting or closed captioning. While training dropout rates are very high — in some cases only 10% or even fewer graduate — stenotype students are usually able to reach speeds of 100–120 wpm within six months, which is faster than most alphanumeric typists. Guinness World Records gives 360 wpm with 97.23% accuracy as the highest achieved speed using a stenotype.^[5]

Numeric entry[edit]

The numeric entry or 10-key speed is a measure of one’s ability to manipulate the numeric keypad found on most modern separate computer keyboards. It is used to measure speed for jobs such as data entry of number information on items such as remittance advice, bills, or checks, as deposited to lock boxes. It is measured in keystrokes per hour (KPH). Many jobs require a certain KPH, often 8,000 or 10,000.^{[citation needed]}

Handwriting[edit]

For an adult population (age range 18–60) the average speed of copying is 40 letters per minute (approximately 8 wpm), with the range from a minimum of 26 to a maximum of 113 letters per minute (approximately 5 to 20 wpm).^{[citation needed]}

A study of police interview records showed that the highest speed fell in the range 120–155 characters per minute, the highest possible limit being 190 characters per minute.^[6]

According to various studies the speed of handwriting of 3–7 graders varies from 25 to 94 letters per minute.^[7]

Using stenography (shorthand) methods, this rate increases greatly. Handwriting speeds up to 350 words per minute have been achieved in shorthand competitions.^[8]

Reading and comprehension[edit]

Words per minute is a common metric for assessing reading speed and is often used in the context of remedial skills evaluation, as well as in the context of speed reading, where it is a controversial measure of reading performance.

A word in this context is the same as in the context of speech.

Research done in 2012^[9] measured the speed at which subjects read a text aloud, and found the typical range of speeds across 17 different languages to be 184±29 wpm or 863±234 characters per minute. However, the number of wpm varied between languages, even for languages that use the Latin or Cyrillic alphabets: as low as 161±18 for Finnish and as high as 228±30 for English. This was because different languages have different average word lengths (longer words in such languages as Finnish and shorter words in English). However, the number of characters per minute tends to be around 1000 for all the tested languages. For the tested Asian languages that use particular writing systems (Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese) these numbers are lower.

Scientific studies have demonstrated that reading—defined here as capturing and decoding all the words on every page—faster than 900 wpm is not feasible given the limits set by the anatomy of the eye.^[10]

While proofreading materials, people are able to read English at 200 wpm on paper, and 180 wpm on a monitor.^[11] [Those numbers from Ziefle, 1998, are for studies that used monitors prior to 1992. See Noyes & Garland 2008 for a modern tech view of equivalence.]

Speech and listening[edit]

Audiobooks are recommended to be 150–160 words per minute, which is the range that people comfortably hear and vocalize words.^[12]

Slide presentations tend to be closer to 100–125 wpm for a comfortable pace,^[13] auctioneers can speak at about 250 wpm,^{[citation needed]} and the fastest speaking policy debaters speak from 350^[14] to over 500 words per minute.^[15] Internet speech calculators show that various things influence words per minute including nervousness.^{[citation needed]}

John Moschitta, Jr., was listed in Guinness World Records, for a time, as the world’s fastest speaker, being able to talk at 586 wpm.^[16] He has since been surpassed by Steve Woodmore, who achieved a rate of 637 wpm.^[17]

Sign language[edit]

In the realm of American Sign Language, the American Sign Language University (ASLU) specifies a cutoff proficiency for students who clock a signing speed of 110-130 wpm.^[18]

Morse code[edit]

Morse code uses variable length sequences of short and long duration signals (dits and dahs, colloquially called dots and dashes) to represent source information^[19] e.g., sequences for the letter «K» and numeral «2» are respectively (  ▄▄▄ ▄ ▄▄▄ ) and (  ▄ ▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ). This variability complicates the measurement of Morse code speed rated in words per minute. Using telegram messages, the average English word length is about five characters, each averaging 5.124 dot durations or baud. Spacing between words should also be considered, being seven dot durations in the USA and five in British territories. So the average British telegraph word was 30.67 dot times.^[20] So the baud rate of a Morse code is 50⁄60 × word per minute rate.

It is standard practice to use two different such standard words to measure Morse code speeds in words per minute. The standard words are: «PARIS» and «CODEX». In Morse code «PARIS» has a dot duration of 50, while «CODEX» has 60.

Although many countries no longer require it for licensing, Morse is still widely used by amateur radio («ham») operators. Experienced hams routinely send Morse at 20 words per minute, using manually operated hand telegraph keys; enthusiasts such as members of The CW Operators’ Club routinely send and receive Morse code at speeds up to 60 wpm. The upper limit for Morse operators attempting to write down Morse code received by ear using paper and pencil is roughly 20 wpm. Many skilled Morse code operators can receive Morse code by ear mentally without writing down the information at speeds up to 70 wpm.^[21] To write down the Morse code information manually at speeds higher than 20 wpm it is usual for the operators to use a typewriter or computer keyboard to enable higher speed copying.

In the United States a commercial radiotelegraph operator’s license is still issued, although there is almost no demand for it, since for long distance communication ships now use the satellite-based Global Maritime Distress and Safety System. Besides a written examination, proficiency at receiving Morse at 20 wpm plain language and 16 wpm in code groups must be demonstrated.^[22]

High-speed telegraphy contests are still held. The fastest Morse code operator was Theodore Roosevelt McElroy copying at 75.6 wpm using a typewriter at the 1939 world championship.^[23]

See also[edit]

• Colemak keyboard
• Dvorak keyboard
• Instructograph
• Keystroke dynamics
• Morse code
• Speed typing contest
• Touch typing

References[edit]

Did this article help you?

The average typing speed is around 40 words per minute. To achieve a high level of productivity, aim for 60 to 70 words per minute instead. The following table presents different levels of assessment for an adult.

Which speed target should you set?

The right speed target depends on your age and your goals. And speed isn’t everything when it comes to learning! It is just as important to develop accuracy. This table provides some guidelines to help you set the right goals for training.

Do you use Typing Pal at school? See our typing accuracy lesson plan to better instruct your students on the subject.

Do you want to improve your typing speed?

Typing faster means learning how to properly position your hands, use all the fingers, hit the right keys without looking at them and avoiding mistakes. If you don’t fully master at least one of these aspects, you could benefit from typing training.

Typing Pal’s training covers all aspects of good typing technique and offers you a complete and personalized program with hundreds of activities suitable for beginners and advanced users.

Trust our method tested by millions of users to help you achieve your goals. Try it for free!

WPM Calculator

There are some formulas and typing equations used to calculate your typing statistics during the free typing test. Let’s check the following formulas and typing equations:

Gross WPM

Gross is also called Raw WPM, which calculates how fast you can type without penalty for mistakes. In the Gross Typing Speed formula, your total typed words are divided by total time (one minute), and the final result is your WPM.

When typing speed is calculating, a word that contains five characters, such as “I love my computer, don’t you?” would be counted as 6 words, not just 5, for example, (30 characters / 5). In this example, except keys such as backspace or shift to work, all other characters are counted, including spaces, letters, numbers, and punctuation.

This way, it is easier to calculate all the numbers in the word. To get the number of words you type, simply count all the typed entries and divide them into 5. For example, in 1 minute, you typed 200 characters, then your typing speed would be 40 WPM according to this formula: (200 characters / 5) / 1 min = 40 WPM. However, if you typed 200 characters in 30 seconds, your net speed would be 80 WPM. Would you really like to test by applying this formula?

Furthermore, a Net WPM calculation formula for measuring typing speed is considered more accurate. In the Gross formula, all your typing mistakes included will give you a complete picture of your true typing abilities. But in Net WPM calculation, Gross WPM is used to provide more accurate results.

Net WPM

Net WPM is a more accurate and useful tool in gauging typing abilities. Typing mistakes play a part in its calculation, so it also measures your typing productivity instead of count only typing speed. In other words, if you are a fast typist but make a mistake, you will get a lower WPM score than a slower but more accurate typist.

This means that it takes up more time to correct errors and proof-reading than simply to type a passage correctly in the first place. However, fewer mistakes mean less chance of error during typing and proof-reading.

To calculate net WPM, you first need to calculate your Gross WPM and then subtract the total gross WPM results from the total amount of your error that you typed in the one-minute test (also known as error rate). If you don’t know how to calculate your error rates, simply divide the number of mistakes by the total typed characters. For example, in a 2-minute typing test with 80 WPM gross typing speed, you made 8 mistakes, then your error rate would be (8 errors / 2 mins) = 4 errors per minute. However, your net typing speed would be (80 – 4) = 76 WPM. One thing always remembers, your typing speed goes down by 1 WPM on every mistake you make per minute typing speed.

This is a simple equation that deciding which types of mistakes should be counted. However, there are two kinds of mistakes.

• 1. Mistakes that are made and corrected
• 2. Mistakes that are made and not corrected

The first requirement is to count all the mistakes, regardless of the reforms, and another argument is why only uncorrected mistakes should be counted.

1) The mistakes correction during the typing test not only messes up the typist’s concentration but also causes a brief pause. Besides, function keys such as shift and delete keys take time to press and don’t count as characters. This means that your mistake already counted before processing the error correction; even your timer penalty does not stop.

Furthermore, the time penalty also discourages the typist from mistakes correction in the first place. While typists should be encouraged at all costs to avoid mistakes. Errors left uncorrected are much more undesirable and devastating than immediately errors resolved while typing.

2) Now, we will look at a number of errors that were corrected later. For example, in a one-minute typing test with 20 WPM typing speed, you were made a total of 20 errors, but you immediately correct all of them. But we calculate 0 WPM as net speed after considering all errors and take the total number of typed characters and all are free of errors (20 * 5 – 20 = 80 characters to be exact), then the typing speed of 0 WPM indicates that no word was ever typed. If errors are left uncorrected, typically typing a word incorrectly and then waste time in correction would be a blunder, and 0 WPM would be acceptable, but the text resulting would be useless.

Still, typists encourage minimized mistakes because if they don’t waste their time on the correction of 20 errors, they can type much faster than 20 WPM.

These are the two main points that proved that the only errors left uncorrected should be penalized.

Accuracy

Typing accuracy is considered to be the percentage of correct entries out of the total entries typed. It’s easy to calculate; your total typed correct characters divided by the total numbers and then multiplied by 100% and get the accurate percentage. For example, if out of 100 characters, you type 90 characters correctly, which means you typed with 90% accuracy.

It is more interesting to note in this accuracy calculation that whether you correct your mistakes or not, all errors are counted, unlike the net WPM calculation. This is because, In the calculation of accuracy, you see your errors directly so that the next character is typed correctly regardless of whether it will be corrected or not.

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Just start typing and dont use Backslash to correct your
mistakes. Your mistakes will be marked and shown below the writing box. Good luck!

Tip!

• Word Per Minute (WPM) is measured by calculating how many words you can type in 1 minute.
• Character Per Minute (CPM) calculates how many characters are typed per minute.
• The top typing speed was achieved by Stella Pajunas in 1946, whereas Mrs. Barbara Blackburn has averaged
  150 wpm in 50 minutes and her top speed was 212 wpm.

What is the average typing speed on the keyboard? Who types the fastest? How can your typing speed help you get a better job offer? You will get the answer to all these questions and more in this infographic.

The Fastest Typing Speed

The highest typing speed ever recorded was 216 words per minute (wpm), set by Stella Pajunas in 1946, using an IBM electric typewriter. Currently, the fastest English language typist is Barbara Blackburn, who reached a peak typing speed of 212 wpm during a test in 2005, using a Dvorak simplified keyboard.

The average wpm speed is only 41.4 words in one minute. This is far below the speeds of the record holders, or even the speeds that are needed to be successful in the working world. However, it is considered a good typing speed.

Who Types Faster?

The average typing speed for boys is 44 words per minute. This is slightly faster than for girls, who clock in at 37 wpm, a full 7 word per minute slower. This seems a little odd, because statistics show that girls actually enjoy practicing their typing skills more than boys do.

You can take a typing test online at any time to test your skills and find out if you are faster than the average typist.

Any Typos?

The average accuracy for a typist is around 92%, meaning they make 8 mistakes for every 100 words typed. The desired accuracy for professional typing positions is around 97% or higher.

Above the Average

Practice is the key factor in becoming a professional typist, or a typist of any appreciable skill. Let’s repeat that, just to make sure it sinks in. Practice, practice, practice. Activity analysis has shown that people who type faster than average tend to practice 3 times longer than those who have average or below average wpm speeds.

When to Start Learning

Developed typing skills can help young people get better study results in school or college, and get better job offers once they have finished school. 65% of people who learn how to touch type faster are under the age of 24. The main goal of learning to touch type or improving touch typing skills, after age 25 is to become more successful in current job.

Motivation

Improving touch typing skills is a must for every person under 18, but everyone can benefit from some time spent practicing. Average typing speed is one of the key skills listed on your resume. Spend some more time practicing and get better results with Ratatype.