Famous IQs in History

Estimated IQs for 157 famous people, from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (210 in a 1926 study) to Einstein. None of them took a modern IQ test, so every number is an estimate with a range and a source.

Einstein's IQ is 160+. What's yours?

Take the IQ test

25 questions · about 12 minutes

What would you score? Try question 1.

Which option completes the grid? One tap, no sign-up.

All 157 figures, ranked

157 of 157

#			Range		Era	Basis
1	William James Sidis	250	250–300	Science & Maths	20th Century	Unverified family claim; documented Harvard record
2	Marilyn vos Savant	228	186–228	Literature	20th-21st Century	Reported Stanford-Binet score (1956), ratio scale
3	Terence Tao	220	220–230	Science & Maths	20th-21st Century	Unverified claim; documented SAT-M 760 at age 8
4	Kim Ung-yong	210	200–210	Science & Maths	20th-21st Century	Reported childhood figure (Guinness); no public test report
5	Johann Wolfgang von Goethe	190+	190–210	Literature	18th-19th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
6	Bobby Fischer	187	181–187	Leaders & Strategy	20th Century	Unverified claims; documented chess record
7	Francis Galton	180+	178–200	Science & Maths	19th Century	Terman 1917 historiometric estimate
8	Christopher Langan	174	160–195	Philosophy & Ideas	20th-21st Century	Reported Mega Test score (1986); higher figures are claims
9	Alan Turing	170+	155–180	Science & Maths	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
10	Carl Friedrich Gauss	170+	160–180	Science & Maths	19th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison from output
11	Emmy Noether	170+	155–180	Science & Maths	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
12	Gottfried Leibniz	170+	170–205	Science & Maths	17th-18th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
13	John von Neumann	170+	160–190	Science & Maths	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison from output
14	Kurt Gödel	170+	160–180	Science & Maths	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison from output
15	Leonhard Euler	170+	160–180	Science & Maths	18th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison from output
16	Pierre-Simon Laplace	170+	170–190	Science & Maths	18th-19th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
17	Srinivasa Ramanujan	170+	155–185	Science & Maths	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison from output
18	Voltaire	170+	170–190	Philosophy & Ideas	18th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
19	Alexander von Humboldt	165+	165–185	Science & Maths	19th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
20	Archimedes	165+	155–175	Science & Maths	Ancient Greece	Surviving mathematical works; no test
21	Blaise Pascal	165+	165–195	Science & Maths	17th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
22	James Clerk Maxwell	165+	155–175	Science & Maths	19th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison from output
23	Paul Dirac	165+	155–175	Science & Maths	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison from output
24	Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart	165+	145–175	Art & Music	18th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
25	Albert Einstein	160+	150–170	Science & Maths	20th Century	Documented research record; no test
26	Aristotle	160+	145–170	Philosophy & Ideas	Ancient Greece	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
27	Bertrand Russell	160+	150–170	Philosophy & Ideas	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison from writing
28	David Hume	160+	160–180	Philosophy & Ideas	18th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
29	Enrico Fermi	160+	150–170	Science & Maths	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison from output
30	Francis Bacon	160+	160–180	Philosophy & Ideas	16th-17th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
31	Galileo Galilei	160+	160–185	Science & Maths	17th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
32	Immanuel Kant	160+	155–175	Philosophy & Ideas	18th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
33	Isaac Newton	160+	160–190	Science & Maths	17th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
34	Johann Sebastian Bach	160+	145–170	Art & Music	18th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
35	John Milton	160+	160–180	Literature	17th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
36	John Stuart Mill	160+	160–180	Philosophy & Ideas	19th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
37	Leonardo da Vinci	160+	160–180	Art & Music	Renaissance	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
38	Lord Byron	160+	160–180	Literature	19th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
39	Ludwig Wittgenstein	160+	150–170	Philosophy & Ideas	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison from writing
40	Nikola Tesla	160+	145–170	Science & Maths	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
41	Noam Chomsky	160+	145–170	Philosophy & Ideas	20th-21st Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
42	Plato	160+	145–170	Philosophy & Ideas	Ancient Greece	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
43	René Descartes	160+	160–180	Science & Maths	17th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
44	Richard Feynman	160+	145–170	Science & Maths	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
45	Stephen Hawking	160+	150–170	Science & Maths	20th-21st Century	Documented research record; no test
46	Victor Hugo	160+	160–180	Literature	19th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
47	William Shakespeare	160+	145–170	Literature	16th-17th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
48	Adam Smith	155+	150–170	Philosophy & Ideas	18th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
49	Baruch Spinoza	155+	155–175	Philosophy & Ideas	17th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
50	Bill Gates	155+	150–165	Business & Tech	20th-21st Century	Widely reported SAT score (1590)
51	Christiaan Huygens	155+	155–175	Science & Maths	17th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
52	Elon Musk	155+	140–165	Business & Tech	21st Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
53	Friedrich Nietzsche	155+	140–165	Philosophy & Ideas	19th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
54	J. Robert Oppenheimer	155+	145–165	Science & Maths	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison from output
55	Johannes Kepler	155+	155–175	Science & Maths	17th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
56	John Calvin	155+	155–175	Philosophy & Ideas	Renaissance	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
57	John Locke	155+	145–165	Philosophy & Ideas	17th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
58	John Quincy Adams	155+	155–175	Leaders & Strategy	19th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
59	Karl Marx	155+	140–165	Philosophy & Ideas	19th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
60	Leo Tolstoy	155+	140–165	Literature	19th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
61	Louis Pasteur	155+	140–165	Science & Maths	19th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
62	Ludwig van Beethoven	155+	145–165	Art & Music	18th-19th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
63	Michelangelo	155+	155–180	Art & Music	Renaissance	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
64	Nicolaus Copernicus	155+	140–165	Science & Maths	16th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
65	Niels Bohr	155+	145–165	Science & Maths	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison from output
66	Pythagoras	155+	140–165	Science & Maths	Ancient Greece	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
67	Socrates	155+	145–165	Philosophy & Ideas	Ancient Greece	Accounts by Plato and Xenophon; no test
68	Werner Heisenberg	155+	145–165	Science & Maths	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison from output
69	Alexander the Great	150+	135–160	Leaders & Strategy	Ancient Greece	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
70	Antoine Lavoisier	150+	150–170	Science & Maths	18th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
71	Augustus Caesar	150+	135–160	Leaders & Strategy	Ancient Rome	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
72	Benjamin Franklin	150+	140–160	Science & Maths	18th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
73	Carl Jung	150+	135–160	Philosophy & Ideas	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
74	Carl Sagan	150+	135–160	Science & Maths	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
75	Dmitri Mendeleev	150+	140–160	Science & Maths	19th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison from output
76	Ernest Rutherford	150+	140–160	Science & Maths	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison from output
77	Frédéric Chopin	150+	135–160	Art & Music	19th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
78	Fyodor Dostoevsky	150+	140–160	Literature	19th Century	Literary record; no test
79	George Frideric Handel	150+	150–170	Art & Music	18th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
80	Isaac Asimov	150+	135–160	Literature	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
81	Jeff Bezos	150+	140–160	Business & Tech	20th-21st Century	Education and career record; no test
82	Julius Caesar	150+	135–160	Leaders & Strategy	Ancient Rome	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
83	Lao Tzu	150+	135–160	Philosophy & Ideas	Ancient China	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
84	Maria Montessori	150+	135–160	Philosophy & Ideas	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
85	Marie Curie	150	140–160	Science & Maths	20th Century	Documented research record; no test
86	Mark Zuckerberg	150+	135–160	Business & Tech	21st Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
87	Martin Luther	150+	150–170	Philosophy & Ideas	Renaissance	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
88	Max Planck	150+	140–160	Science & Maths	19th-20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison from output
89	Michael Faraday	150+	150–170	Science & Maths	19th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
90	Raphael	150+	150–170	Art & Music	Renaissance	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
91	Richard Wagner	150+	150–170	Art & Music	19th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
92	Rosalind Franklin	150+	140–160	Science & Maths	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison from output
93	Simone de Beauvoir	150+	135–160	Philosophy & Ideas	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
94	Steve Jobs	150+	135–160	Business & Tech	20th-21st Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
95	Thomas Jefferson	150+	140–160	Leaders & Strategy	18th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
96	Virginia Woolf	150+	135–160	Literature	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
97	Ada Lovelace	145	135–155	Science & Maths	19th Century	Documented writing (1843 Notes); no test
98	Alan Watts	145+	130–155	Philosophy & Ideas	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
99	Charles Dickens	145+	145–180	Literature	19th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
100	Confucius	145+	130–155	Philosophy & Ideas	Ancient China	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
101	Franklin D. Roosevelt	145+	130–155	Leaders & Strategy	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
102	Franz Kafka	145+	130–155	Literature	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
103	Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel	145+	145–165	Philosophy & Ideas	18th-19th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
104	Hypatia	145+	130–155	Science & Maths	Late Antiquity	Fragmentary ancient accounts; no test
105	Jane Austen	145+	130–155	Literature	19th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
106	Marcus Aurelius	145+	130–155	Philosophy & Ideas	Ancient Rome	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
107	Mark Twain	145+	130–155	Literature	19th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
108	Napoleon Bonaparte	145	125–155	Leaders & Strategy	19th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
109	Niccolò Machiavelli	145+	135–155	Philosophy & Ideas	Renaissance	No documented estimate; editorial comparison from writing
110	Pablo Picasso	145+	130–155	Art & Music	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
111	Queen Elizabeth I	145+	130–155	Leaders & Strategy	16th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
112	Rembrandt van Rijn	145+	135–155	Art & Music	17th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
113	Salvador Dalí	145+	130–155	Art & Music	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
114	Sun Tzu	145+	130–155	Leaders & Strategy	Ancient China	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
115	Theodore Roosevelt	145+	130–155	Leaders & Strategy	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
116	Thomas Edison	145	130–155	Science & Maths	19th-20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
117	Thomas Hobbes	145+	145–165	Philosophy & Ideas	17th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
118	Warren Buffett	145+	130–155	Business & Tech	20th-21st Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
119	Abraham Lincoln	140+	130–150	Leaders & Strategy	19th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
120	Catherine the Great	140+	125–150	Leaders & Strategy	18th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
121	Charles Darwin	140+	140–165	Science & Maths	19th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
122	Claude Monet	140+	125–150	Art & Music	19th-20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
123	Cleopatra	140	130–150	Leaders & Strategy	Ancient Egypt	Ancient accounts (Plutarch); no test
124	Ernest Hemingway	140+	125–150	Literature	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
125	Frederick the Great	140+	130–150	Leaders & Strategy	18th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison from career
126	George Orwell	140+	130–150	Literature	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison from writing
127	Hannibal Barca	140+	130–150	Leaders & Strategy	Ancient Carthage	Ancient accounts (Polybius, Livy); no test
128	Indira Gandhi	140+	125–150	Leaders & Strategy	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
129	Margaret Thatcher	140+	125–150	Leaders & Strategy	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
130	Maya Angelou	140+	125–150	Literature	20th-21st Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
131	Otto von Bismarck	140+	130–150	Leaders & Strategy	19th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison from career
132	Sigmund Freud	140+	125–150	Philosophy & Ideas	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
133	Wangari Maathai	140+	125–150	Activism & Reform	20th-21st Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
134	Alexander Hamilton	135+	135–155	Leaders & Strategy	18th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
135	Garry Kasparov	135	123–140	Leaders & Strategy	20th-21st Century	Reported professional testing (1987); 190 is an unsourced claim
136	John Adams	135+	135–155	Leaders & Strategy	18th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
137	Peter the Great	135+	125–145	Leaders & Strategy	17th-18th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison from career
138	Thomas More	135+	135–155	Philosophy & Ideas	Renaissance	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
139	Vincent van Gogh	135+	120–145	Art & Music	19th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
140	Winston Churchill	135	125–145	Leaders & Strategy	WWII	Documented writing and career record; no test
141	Charlemagne	130+	120–140	Leaders & Strategy	Early Middle Ages	Einhard's biography; no test
142	Frida Kahlo	130+	115–140	Art & Music	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
143	Genghis Khan	130+	115–140	Leaders & Strategy	13th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
144	Jean-Jacques Rousseau	130+	130–150	Philosophy & Ideas	18th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
145	Martin Luther King Jr.	130+	120–140	Activism & Reform	20th Century	Documented education and writing; no test
146	Nelson Mandela	130+	115–140	Activism & Reform	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
147	Queen Victoria	130+	115–140	Leaders & Strategy	19th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
148	Saladin	130+	120–140	Leaders & Strategy	12th Century	Chronicles and biographies; no test
149	Andrew Jackson	125+	125–145	Leaders & Strategy	19th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
150	Harriet Tubman	125+	110–135	Activism & Reform	19th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
151	Mahatma Gandhi	125+	110–135	Activism & Reform	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
152	Oliver Cromwell	125+	115–135	Leaders & Strategy	17th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
153	Rosa Parks	125+	110–135	Activism & Reform	20th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
154	George Washington	120+	120–140	Leaders & Strategy	18th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
155	Joan of Arc	120+	105–130	Leaders & Strategy	15th Century	No documented estimate; editorial comparison
156	John F. Kennedy	119	115–140	Leaders & Strategy	20th Century	Reported school intelligence test (119)
157	Ulysses S. Grant	115+	110–130	Leaders & Strategy	19th Century	Cox 1926 historiometric estimate

52 figures have a Cox 1926 estimate; the rest are editorial estimates from the documented record. Method and dataset: Historical Intelligence Index. Portraits from Wikimedia Commons (credits).

The highest estimates

1. Johann Wolfgang von GoetheLiterature · Cox 1926 historiometric estimate190+
2. Francis GaltonScience & Maths · Terman 1917 historiometric estimate180+
3. Alan TuringScience & Maths · No documented estimate; editorial comparison170+

What do these scores mean?

An IQ of 130 is about the top 2% of people; 145 is about the top 0.1%. Each score page shows the percentile, how rare it is and what it means in practice.

IQ 120Percentile and rarity
IQ 130Percentile and rarity
IQ 140Percentile and rarity
IQ 145Percentile and rarity
IQ 150Percentile and rarity
IQ 160Percentile and rarity
IQ 170Percentile and rarity
IQ 180Percentile and rarity

Frequently asked questions

Who had the highest IQ in history?

Nobody who lived before IQ tests has a measured score. The highest documented historical estimate is Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's 210 from Catharine Cox's 1926 study. Among figures on this site, the next highest are Gottfried Leibniz at 205 and Blaise Pascal at 195. Those figures sit on an old scale and run higher than modern norms.

How are historical IQ scores estimated?

Mostly by historiometrics. In 1926 Catharine Cox rated 301 eminent people born between 1450 and 1850 by comparing what biographies said they could do at each age with what an average child could do. 52 people in this list have a Cox figure. For everyone else the estimate is an editorial marker based on documented achievement, and each profile says which applies.

Are historical IQ estimates accurate?

No. They are informed guesses, not measurements. Most subjects never took a test, childhood records are uneven, and very high scores are hard to measure even today. Each profile on this site gives a range, a confidence level and the limits of the evidence.

What is the average estimated IQ in this list?

Across all 157 figures the average LifeScore estimate is about 152, well above the population mean of 100. That is expected: people become famous for exceptional achievement, and estimates are built from that achievement.

Did Einstein really have an IQ of 160?

There is no evidence he was ever tested. The 160 is repeated on celebrity lists without a source, and Einstein was born too late for Cox's 1926 study. LifeScore uses a working range of 150 to 170 based on his physics.

Keep exploring

Historical Intelligence IndexMethod, confidence ratings and the dataset
Modern public figuresProfiles built on documented evidence
Einstein IQ testA short visual reasoning challenge
Fictional character IQsSherlock, Rick Sanchez, L and more

What's your IQ?

Find out where you sit next to history's great minds: 25 visual reasoning questions.

Take the IQ test

25 questions · about 12 minutes