How Many Words Do You Say a Day?

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Find out how much (and how fast) the average person talks
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So we all know that a picture is worth a thousand words, but what about the average person’s day? How many words is that worth? Well, we’ve looked at the studies and data and we can rightfully say that the answer is a little more complex than the old adages about photography imply. In this article, we’ll cover how many words the average person says a day, how fast they say those words, and the environmental factors that influence someone's speech.

Things You Should Know

  • Lower estimates say people speak around 6,000 words a day, while some studies say people speak up to 16,000 words a day.
  • On average, people say around 150 words per minute when they speak.
  • There’s no meaningful evidence that women speak more often than men do.
Section 1 of 4:

How many words does the average person speak per day?

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  1. There’s no single concrete answer to this question, although there have been dozens of studies on this topic! On the lower end of the scale, people have been measured to say 6,000-7,000 words daily. [1]
    • If you wrote all of that down, 6,000-7,000 words translates to about 12 single-spaced pages. For most people, that would amount to 20 minutes of speech.
  2. On the other end of the spectrum, a lot of studies show that people speak around 15,000 to 16,000 words, which is a little more than twice as many words as the lower estimates. When looking at the data as a whole, the higher end estimates seem like they’re probably a little more accurate for younger people. [2]
    • This would translate to roughly 28 single-spaced pages and it’d take someone roughly an hour to say all of it out loud.
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Section 2 of 4:

How fast does the average person speak?

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  1. While this is unique for everybody and it matters if you’re just having a normal conversation or giving a presentation of some kind, most people say around 150 words a minute when they talk. On the higher end, someone might say up to 180. On the lower end, a slower speaker may say around 120 words. [3]
    • Want to see how fast you speak? Give Debatrix’s speech calculator a try. Time yourself reading a short speech out loud and then enter the speech in the calculator to see how long it’d take other speakers.
Section 3 of 4:

What factors influence how many words people say?

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  1. If you grew up in a packed household in Boston where everyone loved debating hot topics, you’re probably going to speak a lot more often than someone who grew up in rural New Mexico working by themselves outdoors all day. Your ethnic background, family, childhood, and geography all contribute to your propensity for speech. [4]
    • For example, it’s considered strange in Finland to make casual small talk, and many tourists get the vibe that Finns are quiet and untalkative. [5]
    • On the other hand, in Southern Italy it’s common for strangers to greet one another and talk their ears off.
  2. There’s a little bit of truth to the stereotype that younger folks are always chatting up a storm on the phone. [6] Younger people tend to be a little more communicative and expressive than older people, who tend to be a little better at regulating when they talk. Of course, there are always exceptions, but in general you’ll probably talk more if you’re younger. [7]
    • The same goes for written forms of communication. Younger people are more likely to text or talk on social media.
  3. Some people are just natural talkers! Everyone has somebody in their life who can talk an ear off like nobody’s business, and everyone knows someone who would rather dunk their head in a bowl of oatmeal than voluntarily spark a convo with a stranger. It’s just natural for some people to speak more often than others. [8]
    • There’s nothing wrong with being the kind of person who talks a lot, and there’s nothing wrong with being someone who appreciates their silence!
  4. If you love Pokémon and your new coworker just dropped a reference to their holographic Charizard card, it’s totally reasonable if you break that 150-words-per-minute average. People tend to talk a lot more often if they’re secure about their knowledge in the topic of discussion or if the topic of discussion is a hobby or passion of theirs. [9]
  5. How you spend your days is going to determine a lot about how many words you say every day. A communications major is probably talking a lot more often than someone attending math lectures, the same way a customer service rep will likely talk a lot more than an accountant. [10]
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Section 4 of 4:

Do women really talk more than men?

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  1. There’s some minor evidence that women say a few more words a day than men, but it’s not a statistically significant difference. [11] The reality is that men and women seem to talk more or less the same amount as one another, so there’s not much truth in this urban legend. [12]
    • While most studies show women speak a little more often than men, there are a handful of studies that actually demonstrate the opposite, so it’s hard to say women talk more with any serious authority. [13]

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      References

      1. ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4469291/
      2. ↑ https://openpress.usask.ca/introductiontopsychology/chapter/personality-traits/
      3. ↑ https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED566202.pdf
      4. ↑ https://thinkculturalhealth.hhs.gov/assets/pdfs/resource-library/communication-styles.pdf
      5. ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7734327/
      6. ↑ https://www.understood.org/en/articles/child-talks-nonstop
      7. ↑ https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/teenagers-and-communication
      8. ↑ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886999001063
      9. ↑ https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-introverts-corner/201709/more-talk-about-talking-too-much
      1. ↑ https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/usable-knowledge/18/02/brain-changing-power-conversation
      2. ↑ https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/usable-knowledge/18/02/brain-changing-power-conversation
      3. ↑ https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/do-women-talk-more-than-men/
      4. ↑ https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/do-women-talk-more-than-men/

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