What Is a Good Typing Speed? WPM Benchmarks by Age and Job

How Typing Speed Is Measured

Typing speed is measured in words per minute (WPM). A "word" in this context is standardised as five characters, including spaces. This means "hello" counts as one word, but so does "hi, I" — both are five characters. Using a fixed character count as the unit eliminates bias toward shorter or longer words.

Most tests measure gross WPM (total keystrokes ÷ 5 ÷ minutes) and net WPM (gross WPM minus error penalties). When people quote their typing speed, they typically mean net WPM at a standard accuracy of 95–99%.

The Global Average

The most comprehensive typing speed dataset comes from a 2018 Cambridge University study analysing 136 million keystrokes across 168,000 participants. Key findings:

• The median typing speed was 52 WPM across all participants
• The top 1% of typists reached speeds above 100 WPM
• Most participants used only 6 fingers on average, not the full 10 of touch typing
• Professional typists who had received formal training averaged 65–75 WPM

Older benchmarks from office surveys placed the average at 38–40 WPM. The higher modern figure likely reflects two decades of heavy keyboard use in everyday life — smartphones, social media, and messaging have effectively trained a generation of faster typists through sheer volume of practice.

WPM Benchmarks by Skill Level

WPM Benchmarks by Age Group

Typing speed generally increases through adolescence and early adulthood as keyboard exposure accumulates, then plateaus in the 30s and 40s, and declines gradually with age — though skill and practice can significantly offset age-related decline.

These are approximate population averages. Individuals who type heavily for work show significantly less age-related decline than those who type infrequently.

WPM Requirements by Profession

Many professions either require or implicitly expect a minimum typing speed. Here are the typical standards:

Administrative and clerical roles

Most administrative assistant and data entry job postings require a minimum of 40–60 WPM. Senior administrative roles often specify 65–75 WPM. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that secretaries and administrative assistants who handle heavy correspondence or document processing typically need 60+ WPM for reasonable productivity.

Court reporters and stenographers

To certify as a Registered Professional Reporter (RPR) in the US, court reporters must demonstrate 225 WPM on machine shorthand with at least 95% accuracy. Real-time broadcast captioners must reach 260 WPM. These figures refer to machine stenography, which uses chord-entry — not standard keyboard typing.

Transcriptionists

Medical and legal transcriptionists are typically expected to type 60–80 WPM at high accuracy. Speed is secondary to accuracy in transcription work — a 99% accurate 60 WPM typist is more productive than an 85% accurate 90 WPM typist when working with medical terminology where errors are consequential.

Journalists and content writers

Professional writers benefit from typing speeds of 70–100+ WPM, primarily because speed reduces the friction between thinking and output. Many experienced journalists type well above 80 WPM — not as a formal requirement but as a natural consequence of writing for many hours each day over years.

Software developers

Counterintuitively, typing speed is less critical in programming than in prose writing. Studies of professional developers suggest they spend only 20–30% of working time actively typing code. The bottleneck is thinking, not transcription. That said, developers typically type at 60–80 WPM and benefit from higher speeds when writing documentation, emails, and comments.

How to Improve Your Typing Speed

The most reliable interventions for improving typing speed are:

• Learn touch typing properly. Using all ten fingers without looking at the keyboard is the highest-leverage single change most non-touch-typists can make. It requires significant initial slowdown (3–6 weeks of feeling slower) before speed surpasses the previous level.
• Practice with purpose, not just volume. Typing fast in casual use does not improve speed much. Deliberate practice — typing difficult words, targeting weak finger pairs, using structured typing lessons — produces faster gains.
• Fix accuracy first. Practising at high speed with many errors reinforces bad habits. Practise at a speed where you can maintain 97%+ accuracy, then gradually push the ceiling.
• Use interval training. Short intense sessions (15–30 minutes of focused practice per day) outperform longer, unfocused sessions.

Most adults who practise deliberately for 20–30 minutes per day can expect to increase their typing speed by 10–20 WPM over two to three months. Going from 60 WPM to 80 WPM is achievable; going from 80 WPM to 120 WPM requires substantially more practice and is largely a matter of ceiling-breaking rather than technique correction.

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