diff --git a/autoload/airline/extensions/wordcount.vim b/autoload/airline/extensions/wordcount.vim
index fc290113..7def3e52 100644
--- a/autoload/airline/extensions/wordcount.vim
+++ b/autoload/airline/extensions/wordcount.vim
@@ -82,13 +82,14 @@ endfunction
 
 " airline functions {{{1
 " default filetypes:
-let s:filetypes = ['help', 'markdown', 'rst', 'org', 'text', 'asciidoc', 'tex', 'mail']
 function! airline#extensions#wordcount#apply(...)
-  let filetypes = get(g:, 'airline#extensions#wordcount#filetypes', s:filetypes)
+  let filetypes = get(g:, 'airline#extensions#wordcount#filetypes', 
+    \ ['asciidoc', 'help', 'mail', 'markdown', 'org', 'rst', 'tex', 'text'])
+  " export current filetypes settings to global namespace
+  let g:airline#extensions#wordcount#filetypes = filetypes
 
   " Check if filetype needs testing
-  if did_filetype() || filetypes isnot s:filetypes
-    let s:filetypes = filetypes
+  if did_filetype()
 
     " Select test based on type of "filetypes": new=list, old=string
     if type(filetypes) == get(v:, 't_list', type([]))
diff --git a/doc/airline.txt b/doc/airline.txt
index cbe2947d..1aaf33b6 100644
--- a/doc/airline.txt
+++ b/doc/airline.txt
@@ -1180,9 +1180,9 @@ vim-windowswap <https://github.com/wesQ3/vim-windowswap>
 <
 * set list of filetypes for which word counting is enabled: >
   " The default value matches filetypes typically used for documentation
-  " such as markdown and help files.
+  " such as markdown and help files. Default is:
   let g:airline#extensions#wordcount#filetypes =
-    \ ['help', 'markdown', 'rst', 'org', 'text', 'asciidoc', 'tex', 'mail']
+    \ ['asciidoc', 'help', 'mail', 'markdown', 'org', 'rst', 'tex', 'text'])
   " Use ['all'] to enable for all filetypes.
 
 * defines the name of a formatter for word count will be displayed: >