The short version: most adults read English non-fiction silently at about 238 words per minute, and children build toward that across their school years. But "reading speed" is measured two very different ways depending on age, so the numbers below need a little context to be useful.
Reading speed by grade (children)
Young readers are usually measured by oral reading fluency — reading a passage aloud for one minute while a teacher counts the words read correctly. The figures below are the most widely used U.S. benchmarks, from Hasbrouck and Tindal's 2017 norms. They show the median (50th-percentile) score by the spring of each grade.
| Grade | Typical age | Words correct per minute |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 1 | 6–7 | 60 |
| Grade 2 | 7–8 | 100 |
| Grade 3 | 8–9 | 112 |
| Grade 4 | 9–10 | 133 |
| Grade 5 | 10–11 | 146 |
| Grade 6 | 11–12 | 146 |
Two things stand out. Growth is fastest in the early grades, and oral fluency plateaus around 150 words per minute by about sixth grade. That plateau isn't where reading stops improving — it's where the oral measure stops being the right tool.
Why the numbers change after sixth grade
Reading aloud is naturally capped near the pace of speech. Once students read fluently, they shift to reading silently, which can outrun speech because you no longer have to pronounce every word. So past middle school the meaningful measure becomes silent reading speed, which keeps climbing toward adult levels through the teen years. There's no single authoritative per-grade silent-reading table the way there is for oral fluency, so treat any "grade 9 = X wpm" chart you see online with caution — the honest anchor for older readers is the adult average.
Average reading speed for adults
The best current estimate comes from Marc Brysbaert's 2019 meta-analysis of 190 studies and more than 18,000 readers:
- 238 wpm — silent reading of English non-fiction (the headline number)
- 260 wpm — silent reading of fiction (lighter, shorter words, so a bit faster)
- 183 wpm — reading aloud
Most adults land between roughly 175 and 300 wpm for non-fiction. College-educated readers tend to sit toward the upper end. Notice what's missing: the famous "300 wpm is average" figure. That number comes from older studies using college students reading test passages, and the larger, more representative data puts the true average meaningfully lower.
Oral vs. silent reading — don't mix them up
This is the single biggest source of confusion in reading-speed charts. A third grader's "112" and an adult's "238" are not the same kind of number: one is words read aloud correctly per minute, the other is words read silently per minute. Silent reading is generally faster than oral reading for the same person, so comparing a child's oral score directly against an adult's silent score overstates the gap. When you compare speeds, make sure you're comparing like with like.
What changes your reading speed
- Text difficulty. Dense, technical, or unfamiliar material slows everyone down — and should.
- Your purpose. Skimming for the gist is faster than studying for a test; both are valid.
- Age. Rates are lower for young children and tend to slow gradually in older adulthood.
- Language background. Reading in a second language is slower, and rates differ across languages.
- Individual variation. Even within one age group, there's a wide, normal spread.
Find your own reading speed
Averages are a reference point, not a target. The number that matters is yours — paired with how much you actually understood. Our reading speed test times you on a short passage and checks comprehension, so you get an honest words-per-minute figure rather than a skim score.
Curious where you land? Take the one-minute test and get your reading speed with a comprehension score you can share.
Test your reading speed ▸Can you read faster?
Within limits, yes. You can recover time by re-reading less and leaning less on your inner voice for easy material, and tools like the RSVP reader let you push your pace by showing one word at a time at a speed you set. But comprehension sets a ceiling: for most people it starts to fall off past roughly 400–500 wpm, and claims of 1,000+ wpm "with full comprehension" don't hold up. If you want to work on the inner-voice habit specifically, see our guide on how to stop subvocalizing, and for the underlying mechanics read the science of RSVP.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average reading speed?
About 238 words per minute for adults reading English non-fiction silently, and around 260 wpm for fiction, with most adults between 175 and 300 wpm (Brysbaert, 2019).
What is a good reading speed by grade?
By spring, median oral reading fluency is roughly 60 wcpm in grade 1, 100 in grade 2, 112 in grade 3, 133 in grade 4, and about 146 in grades 5–6 (Hasbrouck & Tindal, 2017). Scoring near or above the median for the grade is healthy.
Is 300 words per minute fast?
It's a bit above average. 300 wpm beats the 238 wpm adult mean, but it's well short of "speed reading." Comfortable, high-comprehension reading for most adults tops out around 400–500 wpm.
Does reading speed decline with age?
Rates are lowest in early childhood, peak in early-to-mid adulthood, and tend to slow gradually later in life. Second-language reading is also slower than first-language reading.
Sources: Brysbaert, M. (2019), How many words do we read per minute?, Journal of Memory and Language; Hasbrouck, J. & Tindal, G. (2017), An update to compiled ORF norms (Technical Report No. 1702), University of Oregon, via Reading Rockets.