# The Average Chapter Is 775 Characters

> An average chapter of the Chinese Union Version (和合本, simplified) is 775 Chinese characters — about 3 minutes of reading at 260 characters a minute.

Question: average chapter length in Chinese
Answer: 775 characters
Page: https://chinese-bible.com/en/reference/average-chapter-length

1,189 chapters, 921,149 characters, so the average lands at 775. For a learner the figure matters because a chapter is the natural unit of a session, and because it sets how much unfamiliar vocabulary one sitting will throw at you.

Chapter length varies more than verse length: some psalms run a few dozen characters, while the longest chapters in the historical books and Psalm 119 run several thousand. Reading time in the tables on this site always uses the same stated pace, so the numbers can be compared.

Paired with the difficulty ranking, this is enough to plan: pick a chapter near the top of the easiest list, check its length, and learn its eight most frequent words first — every chapter page lists them.

## The five longest and five shortest chapters

| Chapter | Characters | Verses | Distinct words |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Psalms 119 | 3,285 | 176 | 521 |
| Numbers 7 | 2,429 | 89 | 242 |
| Jeremiah 51 | 2,236 | 64 | 565 |
| 1 Kings 8 | 2,230 | 66 | 458 |
| Genesis 24 | 2,098 | 66 | 402 |
| Job 25 | 95 | 6 | 54 |
| Psalms 131 | 84 | 3 | 41 |
| Psalms 133 | 77 | 3 | 42 |
| Psalms 134 | 53 | 3 | 22 |
| Psalms 117 | 50 | 2 | 23 |


## Questions

**Which is the longest chapter?**

Psalms 119, at 3,285 characters over 176 verses.

**How many chapters a day to finish in a year?**

4 — about 9.7 minutes a day at a fluent pace, and realistically two to three times that while learning.

**Is there a shorter way in?**

The 40 easiest chapters are listed separately, and 2 John is a whole book of about 2 minutes.

## Method

- Text: 和合本 (Chinese Union Version), simplified script — public domain
- Words: forward maximum matching against CC-CEDICT (this site's own segmentation)
- HSK levels: HSK 3.0 levels from the complete-hsk-vocabulary list; band 7 covers HSK 7-9
- Reading times: 260 characters a minute (an assumption)
- Computed: 2026-09-22

These are reproducible counts over a public-domain text, not a peer-reviewed study. Difficulty ranks are one stated formula, not a validated readability score.


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- Definitions: CC-CEDICT, licensed CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).
- If you share this file onward, keep this notice and share alike.
- Character data: Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License / LGPL).
- Bible text: public domain — 和合本 · World English Bible · Louis Segond 1910.
- Built with https://chinese-bible.com