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How long is a PhD dissertation?
A PhD thesis is often 70,000 to 100,000 words, roughly 280 to 400 double-spaced pages, though sciences are usually shorter and limits differ by university.
Work it out
pages, single-spaced, Arial 12 pt, about 500 words a page
- Handwritten pages
- 320
- Reading time
- 5 hr 36 min
- Speaking time
- 8 hr 53 min–10 hr 15 min
- Typing time
- 33 hr 20 min
- Paragraphs
- 400–800
- Sentences
- 4,000–5,333
- Characters with spaces
- about 480,000
Write it in the word counter with a goal of at least 80,000 words.
Open the word counterPhD dissertation in pages and minutes
| Length | Single-spaced | Double-spaced | Reading time | Speaking time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 70,000 words | 140 | 280 | 4 hr 54 min | 7 hr 46 min–8 hr 58 min |
| 100,000 words | 200 | 400 | 7 hr | 11 hr 6 min–12 hr 49 min |
Estimates for US Letter or A4 with 1-inch (2.54 cm) margins and ordinary paragraphs; reading at 238 words a minute, speaking at 130 to 150.
Limits by system
Many UK universities set a maximum, commonly 80,000 or 100,000 words for the main text, sometimes lower in science and engineering. US universities rarely set a word limit; dissertations range from under 100 pages in some sciences to several hundred in the humanities. Publication-based theses, made of papers plus a framing chapter, follow different rules again.
Planning a long thesis
- Write by chapter and keep a table of chapter lengths; most theses have five to eight chapters.
- Keep the limit in view early. Cutting 20,000 words in the final month is painful.
- Count the main text only unless your regulations say otherwise; references, appendices and front matter are usually excluded.
Questions and answers
How many words is a PhD thesis?
Often 70,000 to 100,000 in the UK; check your university’s maximum.
How many pages is a PhD dissertation?
Often 150 to 300 pages including front matter, references and appendices, but it varies widely by field.
How long does it take to read a PhD thesis?
Read straight through at an average pace, about 5 to 7 hours; examiners take far longer.