What Is the Average Reading Speed?

What Is the Average Reading Speed? (& How You Can Improve Your Own)

What Is the Average Reading Speed?

Many resources indicate that the average reading speed of most adults is around 200 to 250 words per minute, which translates to two minutes per page. College students, probably because they must practice reading, move that pace up a notch to about 300 words per minute. 

Admittedly, not everyone can read fast and hit the average reading speed regardless of one’s age. Many factors play a role in how fast a person can read, such as practice, reading material, and their health. However, this does not mean that they can’t improve their reading pace. 

Tag along as we discuss average reading speed, factors affecting one’s reading speed and comprehension, and ways to improve reading speed.

You can only read as fast as you can speak. Is that so? 

To put the average reading speed rate into perspective, we can turn to public speaking and the comparison of the rate of speaking and the rate at which people can comprehend the spoken word.

An experienced public speaker will deliver their message at a rate of about 160 words per minute. It is possible to speak more rapidly, but it is recommended that readers of recorded books speak at around this pace because it is comfortable for most listeners. 

However, some speakers – such as auctioneers – can speak at a rate of up to 400 words per minute. By comparison, we form thoughts at around 1000 – 3000 words per minute, which gives the average listener lots of time to wool-gather, plan menus, and argue with the speaker.

What types of students have the best chances of becoming fast readers?

Now, let’s bring these statistics back and apply them to reading speed. Reading is a complex process that involves a variety of factors. These include being able to discern different sounds as they make up a word and to interpret the various combinations of letters, especially when “sounding out” new or unfamiliar words. 

Reading teachers will use buzz words such as “sight words” or words that readers recognize without having to sound out the letters phonetically. Students who have difficulty associating sounds with letters might have difficulty learning to read. For this reason, it takes a special set of teaching (and learning) skills for a hearing-impaired child to learn to read. 

Students who can quickly associate a sound with a letter have a boost toward excellent reading skills. But that does not mean that students who do not have those skills cannot become good readers.

Students who are visual learners also have a leg up when learning to read. On the other hand, students who have visual difficulty or other learning obstacles, such as poor correspondence between hand and eye, might find the process of learning to read frustrating – especially if being taught using traditional methods. 

Curiously, it has been discovered that dyslexic or ADD students who do boost their reading speed come to enjoy the reading process far more than they did when they were struggling. The increased reading speed allows them to process information faster, and that increases their ability to maintain interest and focus on the material.

Reading speed and comprehension

The ability to focus on the material, take it in, and retain it is the whole point of increasing reading speed, no matter who the reader might be. 

Some have argued that the process of pushing for greater reading speed lowers comprehension. This is both true and untrue, and the threshold for reading with good comprehension is different for different people and changes with the amount of reading practice.

Generally, reading at less than 100-200 words per minute is the normal rate for learning, and 200-400 words per minute are the normal rate for comprehension. Going beyond reading 500 words per minute can compromise the quality of reading and your comprehension.

There are ways to balance reading pace and comprehension. Effective speed reading techniques can help you read faster without compromising your comprehension. Some of the techniques include familiarization with reading material and minimizing subvocalization. 

Average reading rates by age and grade

The table below presents the summary of average reading rates by age and grade level based on Hasbrouck & Tindal’s 2017 Oral Reading Fluency Norms and Marc Brysbaert’s review and meta-analysis of reading rate last 2019. The rates presented do not include technical reading because it is slower to read technical materials. 

Grade Level Age Words-per-Minute
1 6-7 years old 53-111 WPM
2 7-8 years old 89-149 WPM
3 8-9 years old 107-162 WPM
4 9-10 years old 123-180 WPM
5 10-11 years old 139-194 WPM
6-8 12-14 years old 150-204 WPM
High School 14-18 years old 200-300 WPM
College 18-23 years old 300-350 WPM
Adults 23 years old and above 220-350 WPM

 

Your average Kindergarten graduate should be able to read at around ten words per minute. The words might need to be within the child’s “sight word” vocabulary, and definitely should be within their spoken vocabulary.

Students from homes where books are read, including being read aloud to the student, are likely to have a larger speaking vocabulary. They also have arrived at school knowing that information and stories are contained in books and are likely to be excited about learning to read the words for themselves. 

Students who are sensitive to the nuances of letter sounds, and who can clap for each of the sounds in a three-letter word, such as “bag,” are likely to have an easier time learning to read than students who have difficulty discerning the sounds as being associated with each letter.

By the middle of the year in first grade, a student should read around 23 words per minute. This should have increased to 72 wpm by second grade, by grade three to 92 wpm, grade four 112 wpm, and 140 by grade five. 

Speed increases continue steadily through middle school, and by grade 8, they should be reading around 151 words per minute. For most students, speed increases will continue more slowly through high school as youngsters pursue other interests, but they should continue to progress steadily toward the average adult reading rate of 200-250 or better.

What factors can affect reading speed?

Like many things, “average” means that there are people who read much more slowly than that average figure and those who read much more quickly. Each reader will have different levels of reading, as well. 

For a new reader, who is puzzling out words one at a time, reading rate could be one or two words a minute, and then their reading speed could burst as they put the words together in a sentence. People who are not habitual readers might struggle below their normal speaking pace, especially if they are vocalizing the words while reading.

Readers who cruise along at the 350-600 reading speed do not necessarily read every word in each paragraph. They have learned to read in chunks, and often form pictures in their minds as they read, so a novel or even an interesting bit of non-fiction will unfold as if it were a video. 

The average reading speed of each individual will depend on several factors, such as:

Enjoyable practice

Enjoyable practice has a great deal of influence on reading speed and comprehension. Sometimes the difference between a reader and a non-reader is simply finding material that is appealing to the student. 

Make no mistake about it, reading is a skill that requires practice. It is a visual, kinetic and cognitive skill, which means that different people are likely to practice reading at varying skill levels. Reading for at least fifteen minutes a day has the potential to increase reading skills. If the reading material is enjoyable to the reader, those fifteen minutes will breeze by, instead of being a laborious chore, and might even stretch into an hour or more of pleasurable activity.

Nature of the material

A good reader, who has a cruising speed of 300 words per minute, can quickly read through fiction or magazine articles that are of interest. However, dense textbook material that is heavy with new vocabulary and facts is likely to slow any reader from their top reading speed. 

On the other end of that scale, if specific information is needed quickly, experienced readers will switch into “skimming,” a reading mode that scans down a page looking for keywords. 

Reader’s motivation

Motivation for developing a greater reading speed can also be a factor. It can be for pleasure – to be able to read the best-selling books before they get turned into movies, or it can be for profit – because being able to absorb large amounts of material quickly is helpful in school and on the job. 

Mental and physical health

A reader’s speed of mental cognition will affect reading speed, as will physical handicaps such as requiring glasses or contacts to see clearly. Reading is a physical task as well as a mental one, so the speed at which the reader’s eyes can flick across a page might also affect reading speed.

Medium being read

Reading speed is also affected by the medium which is being read. Slightly different skills are needed to read a rolling television script, a computer screen, an electronic tablet, the screen of a cell phone, a printed book or even a newspaper. 

The medium is held differently (or perhaps not held at all), the words display differently, and the information is formatted differently. Some speed reading programs display text one word at a time, challenging the reader to immediately recognize the word and associate it with the previous words to develop comprehension. 

How to improve your reading speed

There are many techniques you can try to increase your reading speed.

One common and effective tip is skimming through your reading material. Skimming is reading rapidly to get an overview of the article you are reading, familiarize with it, and get the important points. This strategy can increase your reading pace and improve comprehension. 

Another tip is focusing on what you read and avoiding distractions to avoid re-reading, which can slow down your pace and your comprehension. 

Tracking your progress will also help by setting a time during your practice. You can also try to enroll in online courses, such as Iris Reading’s Speed Reading Foundation Course, for a comprehensive guide on speed reading. 

If you don’t have the time to participate in the course, visit our blog to learn more on how you can improve your reading speed.

Final thoughts

With all these things in mind, we can come back and say that many literate adults read at an average reading pace of around 200 to 250 words per minute. Most of us are capable of learning to read comfortably at a much faster pace, it just takes a little training to push beyond a familiar comfort zone to take advantage of that ability to think at a rate of 1000 words per minute or more. 

Reading at a faster pace with comprehension and recall might require daily practice. This often means pushing to a higher reading rate, just to develop speed, but then dropping back to a lower rate to acquire information or to enjoy a story.

In addition, even though vocalization or sub-vocalization can be a good learning tool, as can using a pointer or tracing words with a finger, these helpers must be left behind before higher speeds can be realized.

We live in an age of communication and information. We stand at the edge of an ocean of knowledge, with a small cup – our ability to read.

No matter how well you read, you will only be able to take in a portion of that ocean. But the better your reading skills, the larger your cup becomes and the more information you can gather in a short amount of time. Information is power, and reading is the quickest, most efficient way to gather information.

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Comments

  • Laredo
    Reply

    I usually read between 10,000-20,000 wpm for academic articles and scientific papers and about 50,000 wpm for comic books. For Russian literature it’s about 30,000 wpm.

  • sayda
    Reply

    I am 19 years old an d I have excellent reading skills.

  • naruto
    Reply

    i am 11 years old and i can read 900 words per minute is that good

  • Malou
    Reply

    Hello All,

    Almost everyone of you here are a speed reader! I am preparing for a licensure exams and having a hard time to finish-up answering all the questions just on the demo exams because 1. there are 6 difficult exam divisions 2. I think I am way too slow reading the questions.

    I came across this forum while searching online how can I improve my reading speed and comprehension. I am not as young as most of you here but I hope you can give me some good advices. I know I can pass the exams if I can speed-up/improve my reading skills and comprehension.

    You advice is much appreciated. Thank you all!

    • Elizabeth

      Age is just a number and the only number we care about is reading speed! Speed reading courses help individuals gradually break free from generations of old reading habits. This can include how we approach the text even before it’s time to actually read it. I know most people think speed reading is only about reading faster, but a big part of it is retraining your mind to strategically get through the text. With that said, it’s never too late to fine-tune some of those reading habits that where programmed into us so many years ago.

      In regards to your licensure exam. We mentioned above the fact that strategy is very important when getting through the material. While it may be very common to read the text from beginning to end, followed by reading the questions. We offer a speed reading course for test takers that could really help you knock out these standardized exams. Your struggles remind me of students who have to take the LSAT. Wishing you the best!

  • jeffrey Shen
    Reply

    I got 240 at 11

  • Akshaya
    Reply

    I’m 14 and my reading speed generally differs based on the complexity of the text. I can read easy text with around 1500 wpm, average text with around 1200 wpm and harder text with 900 wpm (based on a test) but I hope I can improve my speed.

  • Undefined
    Reply

    I am 18 and I read 150 wpm, which is unfortunate since I like reading and try to read at least an hour per day, but I don’t see any improvement in my reading speed just yet.

    • John

      Humility is a much better attribute to have than reading quickly. Well done.

  • jc
    Reply

    i’m 16 years old and i read at around 2000-2600 words per minute with 90% comprehension. i’m basing those estimates on the time it took me to finish crime and punishment (1 hour 20 minutes). if i’m just skimming through the text, i’m in the 3000-4000 words per minute range with 50-60% comprehension. i thought my reading speed was pretty average until i read this article today. i have absolutely no idea how why i read so fast. i’ve been reading at over 1200 words per minute since i was 9 years old, and i’ve never done anything to try to increase my reading speed. i do have ADD but besides that i’m pretty much neurotypical. could be hyperlexia but i don’t exhibit any of the behavioral symptoms associated with hyperlexia. anyways i enjoyed the article, it’s nice to know i’m actually semi-competent at something for once.

  • Jada Monroe
    Reply

    I am 14 and can read anywhere from 460wpm – 500wpm depending on the context of the book. I can read anywhere from 3-5 books per day, and I am slowly getting back into reading. I used to love reading throughout elementary school, but when I got my phone, my love decreased. It was only over the summer that I rekindled my passion for reading.

  • Me
    Reply

    I read at 600 wpm in 7th grade and am just now finding out that this is why I finish books so much faster than my friends. (It may not be as fast as some other people, but still.)

  • Shamim
    Reply

    Had a great time reading this article and the comments!
    English is my second language. As a 33 y.o. adult, I read my native language with an average of 250 wpm. But I manage to read English texts around 110 wpm which is very low and I would like to bump up to 250. Although I know it can be improved by practicing, the main problem is when facing some new words that are not in my vocabulary! That greatly reduces the flow of my readings!

  • 15 year old boy
    Reply

    annybody knows how rare is for an 15 year old boy to read at 1191 wpm?

    • Alek Sander

      It is more rare than my steak :P

    • Alex

      Haha lol

  • Les
    Reply

    Reading is different for different people. My daughter is the fastest reader I know. She was slow learning to read, falliing behind her peers through second grade. But something clicked for her in third grade, and when she was eleven I timed her reading at over 2000 words per minute. When she was a teenager she “borrowed” new romance novels from her mother (typically 400 pages), took them up to her room, and returned them in the morning completely read.
    But as a junior in college, she was diagnosed as dyslexic when she could not learn a foreign language. But she went on to graduate in English with honors, and became a librarian.
    It appears that she learns each word as a single glyph, and because she has been an avid reader since grade school she has a very large vocabulary.

    • Donna Sopcich

      I so enjoyed reading all of the above comments. I had shorthand over 60 years ago in high-school & could write a 170 words a minute & retain 2 sentences
      I still remember the short hand & use it to this day. I am now 77 years old & still work as an Acct. Exec. & have been in that position for the past 50 years. Retention is so important. Speed reading is a skill & the more you read & having time lines enhances your speed.

  • Alicia
    Reply

    I can read 800 wpm, but without comprehension. Me and my friend finished the harry potter books in 3 months at 3rd grade. After I got a phone, I have stopped reading, but i am reading again. I am 12 years old. I can read at most 3-4 books a day.

  • chris
    Reply

    I am 13 years old and read 1920 WPM with 90% comprehension. My trick is that I read text sentence by sentence, instead of word by word or letter by letter. I have on numerous speed reading competitions, and scored 780 on the verbal portion of the SAT when I was 11. However, I cannot do math for the life of me. I think “Savant Syndrome” is what I have going on.

    • Neha G

      Thats an excellent tip. I have noted it down, hope this helps me pace up

  • Lucille Myers
    Reply

    I also read all Twilight books in a week, and all of the Harry Potter books in a month, but that was a few years ago.

  • Lila
    Reply

    I read at 400 wpm at 12 years old so I was quite surprised when I read this.

    • John

      Honestly, for anyone who stumbles across this article, reading speed is in no way a measure of your intelligence. The important thing is not that you read quickly, it is simply that you read. There is absolutely no better way to improve yourself than through reading. Kids especially, don’t get hung up on the speed. Fast or slow hardly matters, just be a reader.

  • Connor
    Reply

    I read 548 wpm while reading Harry Potter and i’m in 6th grade. But, Harry Potter probably has a easier repertoire of words to comprehend so my wpm would be lower on higher level books such as college textbooks

  • Paul
    Reply

    My son read super-fast between 5 and 9 years old. He read Harry Potter one book in a day and finished 7 books in a week during a school break as a first grader. That was about 400 to 500 wpm. He read 20 to 30 books every week for 4 or 5 years. After he got an iPad/iPhone, his reading time and reading speed dropped dramatically.

  • ryan
    Reply

    im only 201 im slow but i try im 11 btw other 12 congrats ur so fast

  • Jemma
    Reply

    The fact that practice improves your reading rate, is very clear! I read a couple of hours each day and I have slowly worked my self up to adult reading rate at age 12. I must say… I’m very proud.

    • Alek Sander

      That’s great to hear! There is no greater skill than having the ability to get through new information quickly, and remember it.

    • James

      Very true! I am 14 and an avid reader and only just found out about this wpm stuff but I can already read at 460 wpm!

  • Reverend Darlene G. Engebretsen, MSW.
    Reply

    Although I’m no math genius, I’ve always been a good reader and writer. I didn’t attend preschool or kindergarten, yet was immediately placed in the most advanced reading group in first grade. I’ve had no special training, other than spending a lot of time reading when I was growing up. This was very helpful in college. I recently found some old school records, which included test scores. They showed that by the end of my freshman year in high school, I was reading at 495 words per minute with 100% comprehension. Skills can certainly be improved or enhanced with training and practice, but I think there are some abilities that people are just born with. At age fifty – nine, my reading skills help me to write better poetry because reading builds vocabulary and sparks the imagination.

    • Alek Sander

      So eloquently put… Reading builds vocabulary and sparks the imagination. Love it!

    • ryan

      your reading rate is insanely faster if not almost double mine. im good typer though.

  • Zachary
    Reply

    I am 27 years old male, I have a masters degree, and I read 200 words per minute! I don’t get how do you people read faster?

    • Alek Sander

      There are practical techniques that you can implement in your reading that will help you increase your reading speed with better focus and concentration so you can comprehend the material. Check out the Iris Speed Reading & Memory Courses.

    • Connor

      I read 548 wpm while reading Harry Potter and i’m in 6th grade. But, Harry Potter probably has a easier repertoire of words to comprehend so my wpm would be lower on higher level books such as college textbooks

    • Rawr

      I’m 12 and I read at a speed 300-360 although when I comes to books I can’t get my Brain to focus on it takes hours to read 300 words it just depends

    • Dorothy

      I’m 65 and do 90 world minute at best and always have done, tragically

  • Jonah
    Reply

    Don’t get cocky I’m reading at 426 wpm at 14.

    • nhudwenhj

      309 at ten

  • GRACE MWANGI
    Reply

    Waoo! Very insightful and informative to my thesis am dealing with dyslexic learners.

  • Soo
    Reply

    Insightful article. Thank you for posting it. Now I have an idea of where I stand relative to average speed readers and the college level.

  • Timothy
    Reply

    I just came here because I was curious about what reading level I was really at (not what the school tells me) and I was surprised to learn that I’m at a college level (358 wpm) at age 14. Not only was that very clear in the article, the article also gave me information that I didn’t expect, like how reading speed and comprehension develops throughout childhood. This article is amazing, and I hope more people discover it.

  • Chris u Bahago
    Reply

    Hi, I’ll be glad to improve my reading speed, just stumbled on your innovation,commend it highly.

  • Júlia
    Reply

    Really enjoyed your text! Very complete and well written, has every information I wanted and somethings that didn’t even know I wanted to know.
    I wonder if there is information when a sua language is concerned, which is my case.
    Again, great job on the articule!

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