The most-cited modern figure comes from a 2019 meta-analysis by Marc Brysbaert, who reviewed 190 studies with nearly 18,000 participants. He found average silent reading rates of about 238 wpm for non-fiction and 260 wpm for fiction in English — lower than the 300 wpm figure that circulated for decades.
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Adult reading speed by activity
| Activity | Words per minute |
|---|---|
| Learning / studying difficult material | 100–200 |
| Silent reading, non-fiction | ≈ 238 |
| Silent reading, fiction | ≈ 260 |
| Reading aloud | ≈ 180 |
| Skimming | 400–700 |
| Proofreading | ≈ 200 |
Speed-reading claims of 1,000+ wpm with full comprehension are not supported by eye-movement research; above roughly 500 wpm, comprehension falls sharply.
Reading speed by age
Silent reading fluency grows quickly through school, then plateaus in adulthood. Approximate averages:
| Age / grade | Approx. wpm |
|---|---|
| Age 7–8 (grade 2) | 90–120 |
| Age 9–10 (grade 4) | 120–160 |
| Age 11–12 (grade 6) | 160–190 |
| Age 13–15 (grades 8–9) | 180–220 |
| Age 16–18 (high school) | 200–250 |
| Adults | 200–260 |
Individual variation is large at every age; treat these as rough benchmarks rather than targets.
Speaking and listening speed
- Presentations and speeches: 120–150 wpm. Use 130 wpm to time a talk.
- Conversation: 140–170 wpm.
- Audiobooks: 150–160 wpm is the industry norm.
- Podcasts and auctioneers run faster — 160–200+ wpm.
A 10-minute speech is therefore about 1,300 words; a 3-minute pitch about 400.
Measure your own reading speed
- Choose a page of ordinary prose you haven't read.
- Read it normally for exactly one minute.
- Paste what you read into the word counter — that number is your wpm.
Curious about your typing speed instead? Try the typing speed test.
What it means for writers
- A “5 min read” label means roughly 1,200 words.
- Most readers give an article a few seconds before deciding to stay — the first 50 words matter more than the next 500.
- Shorter sentences and paragraphs increase effective reading speed, especially on phones.