Word Count Explained: How Many Words Is 5 Pages Double Spaced?

By Author: Sophia Robart
Total Articles: 2
Comment this article

Word count is important when dealing with academic work, creative writing, or any other written communication. Particularly, when you or have been ever assigned five pages to write and it is double-spaced, you may be thinking how many words that is actually. Although it appears to be a simple question, there are a combination of factors that come into play, which can influence the answer in terms of word counting and they include font size, type face, margins, and spacing. In this article, we will break down the elements so you get a clear picture of how many words usually fill in five pages when typed using a double-spacing rule.

The Basics of Double Spacing

The term double space means the space between two text lines. A double spaced essay has a complete empty line following every line of writing, so the document seems to be easier to read and make notes. The style is usually more popular in academic communities when essays, research papers as well as other typewritten literature is used, as it enables an ...
... instructor to add comments and corrections without making the text too crowded.

A common font size to use in most academic writing is 12-point, which is often a font like Times New Roman or Arial. Besides the doubling of the line spacing, general or standard 1 inch margins are normally provided anywhere in the page. It is important to consider these factors when you want to know the number of words it can be filled with in a two-spaced page.

Average Word Count per Page

An averagely formatted (12-point font, 1-inch margins) double-spaced page contains approximately 250 to 300 words. Such an estimate may be changed a bit according to the type of font and the formatting for college papers, but it is a good starting point.

For example: When we have an average of 275 words per page we may be able to calculate how many individual words are used on 5 pages: 275 words/page x 5 pages = 1375 words

Therefore, when you are supposed to write a five pages, double-spaced text, you can normally expect about 1,375 words to shoot. To understand its usage, refer to the examples and sample papers at StudyUnicorn.com for clarity and a better understanding.

Factors That Influence Word Count

Although the average estimate is a good guideline, there are a number of factors that can alter the number of words that the total count may extend:

Font: Various fonts contain a different number of characters per line. As an example, Arial could employ space differently as Times New Roman due to the letter design. Fonts such as the Courier New will be wider and as such, you will find that such fonts will generally give you less words per page than the Times New Roman.

Margins: Words Count can also be influenced by default margin settings that word processing programs make. Assuming that your margins are set at greater than 1 inch, fewer words will be fit on the page. On the contrary, smaller margins would leave room to include the texts.

Paragraph Structure: Your paragraphs likewise can affect the overall word count. To illustrate it with an example, in case you have short paragraphs used regularly, you might land up with low word pages and longer paragraphs can occupy more pages.

Other Formatting Elements: Other formatting can consume space otherwise available to text, and thus may influence the actual number of words. This includes MLA vs APA spacing, or indentation, before or after paragraphs, headers, and footers.