In 1986, the Guardian estimated British children knew around 300 words at age two, increasing to about 5000 by age five, and reaching 12000 by age 12. British university graduates typically have a vocabulary of around 23000 words, about 76 times that of a two-year-old. The study also found that the most common 2000 words cover 79.7% of English text, rising to 88.6% with 5000 words.