Australia and the World Past and Present

Talking, listening, reading and writing. The fundamentals of communication. What happens when you add speed to the equation? Have you ever wondered how fast you talk? Or read or write? Let’s look at the curious little world of words per minute (WPM).

According to the National Center for Voice and Speech the average speed for English speakers in the US is around 150 WPM.

Unsurprisingly, auctioneers are one of the faster cohorts with 250-400 WPM and Popular TED talks often have presenters who manage 150-200 WPM.

Do people read slower or faster than they talk? Well, it will depends a lot on the individual.

Based on studies by Marc Brysbaert, scholarwithin.com gives the figure of 238 WPM. That is if one is reading silently. Things slow down a bit if you are reading aloud and drops to 183 WPM. Nothing works faster than the brain. Once you get the jaw moving the process slows down.

What about writing? Well, the process slows down even more.

Again, it will depend on the individual but an adult may be able to manage 40 WPM. A similar rate can be expected for typing on a keyboard. Obviously, if you are typing all the time or can touch-type the rate can be expected to go up.

Talking is much faster than writing so that is why it can feel like a much more natural activity. There is nothing faster than thoughts forming but speaking is the fastest way to express them. Writing is slower and may be preferable when one wants or needs time to consider carefully what they want to say. Writing is a medium that gives people time.

Below I have crunched the numbers for some different individuals speaking in different contexts. All are famous. Some are younger and some are older. Some are singers and some are not. I hope you enjoy it.

The song ‘Informer’ by Snow.

Snow is a Canadian Reggae musician. This song, released in 1992, was notorious for its confusing lyrics. This results more from the influence of Jamaican language in the song, but its still relatively fast.

Words: 835

Time: 3 minutes and 50 seconds

WPM: 218

The song ‘Rap God’ by Eminem.

Of the speakers that I reviewed Eminem was the fastest. An interesting question is ‘at what point does someone’s speech become too difficult to understand’? I haven’t yet done the research on this. But certainly, it is possible for some people to talk faster than most people can keep up with.

Words: 1540

Time: 6 minutes and 9 seconds

WPM: 250.4

Queen Elizabeth II: Christmas Message 2021

Words: 699

Time: 5 minutes and 27 seconds

WPM: 127

David Attenborough: A message to world leaders, UN Climate Action Summit 2019.

Words: 344

Time: 3 minutes 10 seconds

WPM: 109

Robin Williams: Live on Broadway, 2002.

I wanted to find a popular celebrity ‘fast talker’ to crunch the numbers on but I wasn’t sure who that would be. One name kept coming up – Robin Williams. This gig is quite the performance. Over one and half hours of unscripted verbosity. What is amazing is not so much the speed of his speech but that he keeps it up for so long.

Words: 11 612

Time: I hour 39 minutes

WPM: 117