20 WPM is faster than 4% of the 168,000 typists in the study. That is below the study mean of 52 WPM; touch typing usually adds 20 to 30 WPM within a few weeks.

What is the average typing speed?

The mean in Dhakal et al. (2018) is 52 words per minute with a standard deviation of 18. Office workers average about 40 WPM, professional typists 80 or more, and the world record is 212 WPM.

About 1 in 27 typists are this slow or slower. That is 1.8 standard deviations below the mean.

Is 20 WPM a good typing speed?

20 words per minute is faster than 4% of people in a study of 168,000 online typists. The mean is 52 WPM, so 20 is 32 WPM below it.

Percentile

of typists are slower than 20 WPM

20 WPM

20 WPM by group

Percentile

Dhakal et al. 2018, normal approximation, SD 18
Group	Mean	Slower than you	1 in X
Online typists, all	52 WPM	4%	1 in 27

Benchmarks

Common reference speeds and the share of typists each one beats
Who	WPM	Faster than
Average office worker	40	25%
Study mean (Dhakal et al.)	52	50%
Programmer, typical	60	67%
Professional typist	80	94%
Human speech	130	>99%
World record (Sean Wrona)	212	>99%

Percentile is the share of typists slower than this speed. “1 in X” counts the rarer side: people at or beyond this value above the median, at or under it below. Percentiles are estimated from a normal approximation with mean 52 WPM and SD 18.

What this means

At 20 WPM you type at about 15% of the speed people talk, which is around 130 words per minute.
A 500-word email is about 25 minutes of pure typing at this speed. Thinking is extra.
Most people in the study typed with two to six fingers and no training. Speed comes from not looking at the keyboard, not from talent.

Questions

Is 20 WPM good?: 20 WPM is faster than 4% of the 168,000 typists in the study. That is below the study mean of 52 WPM; touch typing usually adds 20 to 30 WPM within a few weeks.
What is the average typing speed?: The mean in Dhakal et al. (2018) is 52 words per minute with a standard deviation of 18. Office workers average about 40 WPM, professional typists 80 or more, and the world record is 212 WPM.
How rare is 20 WPM?: About 1 in 27 typists are this slow or slower. That is 1.8 standard deviations below the mean.

Source: Dhakal et al., CHI 2018: 136 million keystrokes from 168,000 online typing test participants. Percentiles on this page are our estimate from a normal distribution with the stated mean and SD.

One passage, one minute, your words per minute and percentile.

Test your typing speed