Average Speaking Rate and Words per Minute

The speed at which you speak has a profound effect on how the audience perceives you and your speech. That is why it is important to understand how to change the way you speak and the type of speech you are giving.

In this article, you will learn how to calculate your speaking rate and how it compares the average rate for a popular discussion to give you some context. Audio samples of end-of-speech rates are provided, so you can understand the difference in words per minute.

Click here wpmtest.org to count your word per minute. This is a very simple online tool.

How to calculate your speaking rate

The speaking rate is often expressed in words per minute (WPM). To calculate this value, you need to record yourself talking for a few minutes and then increase the number of words in your speech. Now, Divide the total number of words by the number of minutes your speech took.

Speech rate (WPM) = Total number of words / minutes

You can record yourself with your smartphone or with a video camera. there are two ways to get the number of words, once you have the audio of your speech,

1.Manually count words as soon as you listen to the audio back

2.Upload speech recordings to the Speech-to-Text platform.

When you have the speech converted to text format, copy the text to a software package like Microsoft Word, which provides useful word count for the document.

Once you have the number of words, convert the time into minutes - for example, if your speech is 30 seconds 4 minutes you will need to divide the number of words by 4.5 (30 seconds is equal to half a minute).

What is the average speaking rate?

The average speaking rate changes dramatically depending on your speech purpose. According to the National Center for Voice and Speech, the average conversation rate for English speakers in the United States is about 150 WPM. However, for radio presenters or pod casters, WPM is higher.

For different activities here is a list of average speech rates.

Average speech rates

Presentations: Between 100 and 150 WPM for a comfortable pace

Conversational: between 120 and 150 WPM

Audio book: A high range between 150 and 160 WPM that allows people to hear and vocalize words comfortably

Radio host and pod caster: between 150 and 160 WPM

Auctioneers: Can talk at about 250 WPM

Commentators: Between 250 and 400 WPM

To give some reference to these speech rates, if the speaking pace is 130 words per minute you will end up reading an A4 page (caliber, font size 11) in 51 seconds, 4 minutes.

Extremes of speaking rate - a world record pace

Steven Woodmore is a British electronics salesman and comedian who is known for his fast speech and can comment at 637 Word Per Minute four times faster than the average person.

Woodmore was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the fastest talker in the world. He received the medal from John Moschita, Jr. for the past five years.

Comparison of words per minute for popular TED Talks

Let's compare different presentation styles to show how speech rates can vary widely. We will use popular TED Talks to compare words per minute for different presentations.

We analyzed five TED Talks ranging from a short speech to 22 minutes. When we were measuring the length of the presentation, we included those times when the audience applauded and the presenters changed the slides.

We tried to choose from a wide range of speech topics to get an unbiased average.

The average speaking rate was 173 WPM.

173 words per minute is an average speaking rate.

The speaking rates range from 154 to 201 words per minute.

Popular TED Talk speaking rates

1.How great leaders act (Simon Sinek) - 170 WPM

2.Power of Introverts (Susan Cain) - 176 WPM

3.Do schools destroy creativity? (Sir Ken Robinson) - 165 WPM

4.What We Do Why We Do (Tony Robbins) - 201 WPM

5.Power of vulnerability (Brené Brown) - 154 WPM

What influences your overall speaking rate?

Many factors affect the overall speaking rate, most of which can be controlled by you.

Regular speaking rate - this is a result of your environment, where you grew up, your parents, culture, friends around you, and much more.

Nervousness - You may have noticed for yourself that when you are nervous, you speak faster and you breathe less shallowly while running into the content.

Saying something urgent - understandably, we speak much quicker when an emergency arises, for example calling an ambulance or explaining an incident to the police.

Mental Fatigue - Fatigue affects our thinking process, making it harder for us to articulate ourselves, causing us to talk more slowly.

Words complexity - It will take a while to speak more, more complex words and if you count words per minute it will slightly affect the speed of speech (albeit somewhat negligible)

Content Complexity - If you’re presenting complex content, you want to speak slower than usual to give the audience time to understand the concept and content.

Verbal pauses- Pause is a great way to break down content and emphasize what you're saying. Naturally, this slows down your speaking rate.

Event-driven pauses - These pauses are due to changes in slides, checking your product demo, your notes, etc.

Audience-driven pauses - These events happen because of your audience, for example when they laugh and ask questions.

Is speaking rate important?

In short, yes, your speaking rate affects how the audience perceives you and your message.

Generally, slow rates are easier for the audience to understand. If you include pauses as well, give time to the audience to absorb the message of your presentation.

Try Varying your speaking rate

No matter what your average speaking rate is over the entire speech, but you should change it throughout the speech. Varying your speech makes it more interesting for your audience and adds emotion to the content. Without the speed difference, you are at risk of having a monotonous sound.

For example, you can speak fast to express excitement or slow down to reflect sadness or importance.

When to change your speed

Fast Speaking - Indicate a sign of passion, urgency, enthusiasm, and emotion

Speaking slowly - Indicate a sign of importance, sadness, confusion, the seriousness of a point

It’s exciting for the audience at first when you’re talking fast, but after a minute or two, it stops getting excited and becomes overwhelming.

When you speak slowly it attracts the attention of the audience and helps to process every word, but slowly the whole discussion will bore your audience: the point you are waiting to reach loses interest.

Remember: The rate at which we speak is highly individual

This is an important point to remember. The meaning will be lost if you take some well-known speeches and change the pace of their delivery. For example, Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" was spoken slowly. Take long breaks and carefully spoken words give you time to absorb information and give the audience plenty of time to avoid it altogether. Even if you don’t understand these words, speed indicates that the message is important and should be taken seriously.

Cultural differences

Culture plays a big role in the pace we speak naturally. Locations in the same country can also make a difference - people in London generally speak faster than people in Yorkshire. Also, if English is not the speaker's first language, they usually speak a little slower.

How to practice: Gets the right speaking pace

There are two ways to measure and practice your speaking pace.

Use Metronome

Metronome ticks at a specific rate depending on what you set. If you want to say 130 words per minute, set this value to metronome and practice saying one word for every tick of the metronome. This is a good start, however, you might want to change this pace to emphasize a few points when presenting it to the audience - a speech at exactly 130 WPM would be even monotonous and rehearsal.

Use virtual reality

Virtual reality lets you practice your talk in a variety of realistic environments. When you carry a VR headset, you can practice presenting a lot at conferences, meetings, sales pitches. With the Virtual Speech app, you can get feedback on your speaking rate after your speech and adjust accordingly for your next speech.

Summary:

150-160 words per minute is the most characteristic speed at which radio and podcast hosts speak.

Many of the best speakers on the Ted Lecture also speak very closely to this rate. Many speakers successfully deliver messages above this rate.

Change your speaking rate to avoid becoming monotonous. Speak fast to show more enthusiasm and speak slowly to focus on importance and focus. Along with the WPM rate, a good speaker should also focus on clarity and simplicity.

Practicing with the metronome is the most common technique for training speech. If you want to speak clearly and at a steady rate, make sure you are relaxed, ready for recording, familiar with the record with content in a controlled and soundproof environment.