{"id":644,"date":"2022-11-08T11:19:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-08T11:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/18.217.66.101\/?p=644"},"modified":"2024-03-21T14:24:54","modified_gmt":"2024-03-21T14:24:54","slug":"average-speaking-rate-words-per-minute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/virtualspeech.com\/blog\/average-speaking-rate-words-per-minute","title":{"rendered":"Average Speaking Rate and Words per Minute"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The speed at which you talk has a huge influence on how the audience perceives you and your speech. It’s important, therefore, to understand your speaking rate and how to alter it depending on the type of speech you are delivering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this article, you’ll learn how to calculate your speaking rate and how it compares to the average rate for popular talks to give you some context. Audio samples of speaking rates at the extremes are provided, so you can understand the difference in words per minute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the article, exercises are provided to help you develop an adaptive speaking rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to calculate your speaking rate<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Speaking rate is often expressed in words per minute (wpm). To calculate this value, you’ll need to record yourself talking for a few minutes and then add up the number of words in your speech. Divide the total number of words by the number of minutes your speech took.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Speaking rate (wpm) = total words \/ number of minutes<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

You can record yourself with this online voice recorder<\/a>. Once you have the audio of your speech, there are two ways to get the number of words:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Manually count the words as you listen back to the audio<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Upload the speech recording to a speech-to-text platform<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    When you have the speech converted to text format, copy the text into a software package such as Microsoft Word, which provides a useful word count for the document.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Once you have the number of words, convert the time to minutes \u2013 for example, if your speech was 4 minutes 30 seconds, you need to divide the number of words by 4.5 (as 30 seconds is half of a minute).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"JFK<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address, where he slowed his usually very high speaking rate down to below 100 wpm (his average was well above 150 wpm).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What is the average speaking rate?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    The average speaking rate changes dramatically for the purpose of your speech. According to the National Center for Voice and Speech, the average conversation rate for English speakers in the United States is about 150 wpm<\/strong>. However, for radio presenters or podcasters, the wpm is higher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here is a list of average speech rates for different activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Average speech rates<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n