Average Typing Speed by Age
By Lost Reality Games
Most people who look up “average typing speed” want a single number to compare themselves to. The honest answer is that it depends heavily on age, on whether the person uses touch typing or hunt-and-peck, and on what kind of text is being typed. Here are the rough numbers and where they come from.
What counts as “average”
When you see a WPM number quoted online, it almost always comes from a copy test: you read a passage, type it, and the test divides characters typed by elapsed time. That number isn’t the same as your real-world typing rate. Real-world typing involves thinking pauses, backspaces, and shifting between apps. A person who tests at 70 WPM might compose an email at closer to 35.
Most typing tests also adjust for errors. A common formula counts only words typed correctly, so a 90 WPM raw score with 80% accuracy becomes 72 WPM adjusted. When you compare yourself to an average, make sure you’re comparing the same number.
Numbers by age group
These are rough ranges from publicly available typing-test data and education studies. Treat them as a sanity check, not a goal.
- Ages 7-10: 15 to 25 WPM. Most kids in this range are still building finger independence and reading speed at the same time.
- Ages 11-14: 25 to 40 WPM. Touch typing instruction in school typically lands here, and kids who use computers daily tend to sit at the upper end.
- Ages 15-17: 35 to 55 WPM. The gap between casual and “I game and message constantly” typists widens.
- Ages 18-30: 40 to 65 WPM. The largest group of typing-test takers, and where most online averages get reported. The professional baseline for office work sits in the 40-50 range.
- Ages 31-50: 35 to 60 WPM. Speed stays steady or drifts slightly downward, depending on how much someone types at work.
- Ages 50+: 30 to 55 WPM. People who learned on typewriters often outperform younger typists on accuracy, even if their peak WPM is lower.
The fastest competitive typists in the world clear 200 WPM on contest tests, but that group is rounding error in any age band.
Why age matters less than you think
Age correlates with typing speed mainly because it correlates with hours spent at a keyboard. A 45-year-old who has been typing daily since their teens often outperforms a 25-year-old who only uses a phone. The same goes the other direction: a teenager who games on PC three hours a day will beat most adults on raw speed.
Two factors dominate over age:
- Whether you touch type. Hunt-and-peck has a hard ceiling, usually around 40-50 WPM even with thousands of hours of practice.
- Whether you practice deliberately. Casual typing keeps you at your current level. Practice with feedback (a typing test, a rhythm game, a structured drill) is what moves the number.
If your speed feels stuck, age is almost never the reason.
How to move your own number
The boring advice works: type more, type with intent, and measure once a week so you can see the trend. The less boring version is to put practice inside something you enjoy, because consistency beats intensity by a wide margin. A song-length session a few times a week will beat a one-hour drill once a month every time.
That’s the bet Keyboard Rush makes. The song sets your pace, the rhythm keeps you accurate, and the session ends before fatigue creeps in.