Average reaction time by age: a rough guide
Reaction time follows a fairly consistent curve across life: it starts slow in early childhood, speeds up through the teens, peaks in early adulthood, holds fairly steady for a couple of decades, then slows gradually. The figures below reflect typical simple visual reaction times reported across research, but treat them as ballpark ranges rather than fixed cutoffs.
- Children (5-10 years): roughly 300-400 ms, improving quickly with age
- Teens (11-19): roughly 250-300 ms as processing speed matures
- Young adults (20-29): fastest window, often 230-270 ms, peaking mid-20s
- 30s to early 40s: still quick, typically 250-280 ms
- 50s: modest slowing, often 260-290 ms
- 60 and over: commonly 270-320 ms, with wider individual variation
Why reaction time peaks in your mid-20s
Reaction time depends on how fast a signal travels from your senses, through your brain's decision-making circuits, and out to your muscles. This whole chain relies on neural processing speed, which improves through childhood and adolescence as the brain's wiring matures and becomes better insulated (a process called myelination).
By the mid-20s, that maturation is largely complete, and the nervous system is operating near its fastest. This is why young adults tend to post the quickest scores on simple reaction tasks, and why competitive gamers and athletes often peak in this age band.