Andrew Jackson IQ

Andrew Jackson's IQ is estimated at 123 to 145. Catharine Cox's 1926 study gave him a corrected 145; he never took a test. His record shows command, drive and political skill more than scholarly ability.

Jackson's IQ is 125+. What's yours?

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Key facts

Estimated IQ: 125+
Range: 125 to 145
Known for: The Battle of New Orleans and the presidency from 1829 to 1837
Lived: 7th US President, 1767–1845
Basis: Cox 1926 historiometric estimate
Confidence: Low. Jackson died in 1845. No IQ test was ever given; the figure comes from a 1926 study that rated historical figures from biographies.

Cox's corrected estimate for Jackson was 145. His career shows strong leadership, which is a different thing from the test-style ability that IQ measures.

What was Andrew Jackson's IQ?

Jackson never took an IQ test. Catharine Cox's 1926 study gave him a corrected estimate of 145. Adjusted for the Flynn effect that is about 123, so LifeScore uses a range of 123 to 145, with 125+ as the marker.

Is the list of presidential IQs real?

The list that circulates online, claiming specific IQs for modern presidents, was an internet hoax started in 2001. It is not based on tests. Estimates for earlier presidents such as Jackson come from historiometric methods, which are rough and carry wide uncertainty.

What did Jackson do as president?

He won the 1828 election as a champion of ordinary voters and fought the Second Bank of the United States. He also signed the Indian Removal Act in 1830, which led to the forced removal of tens of thousands of Native Americans, including the Trail of Tears, a grave stain on his record.

Where does the 145 figure come from?

The 145 is Catharine Cox's corrected estimate from her 1926 study of 301 eminent people born between 1450 and 1850. She rated each person from biographical records of what they could do as a child and young adult, then corrected for gaps in the record.

Cox's numbers sit on an old ratio-IQ scale. One secondary tabulation subtracts about 22 points for the Flynn effect, which puts Andrew Jackson near 125.

LifeScore lists 125+, and the working range of 125 to 145 spans both figures. None of them is a test result.

How smart was Andrew Jackson?

01
The Battle of New Orleans
In January 1815 his army beat a larger British force and made him a national hero.
02
A frontier lawyer
He practised law in Tennessee and became one of its first members of Congress.
03
The Bank War
He vetoed the recharter of the Second Bank of the United States in 1832 and won re-election.
04
Facing down nullification
In 1832 and 1833 he threatened force against South Carolina when it claimed the right to void federal law.

How Jackson thought

Jackson acted on conviction and trusted his instincts and a close circle of advisers. His strength was command: he decided quickly, pushed through resistance and communicated simply with ordinary voters.

The evidence behind the estimate

An estimate built from the historical record, not a recovered test score.

What supports it

Cox's 1926 study gave Jackson a corrected estimate of 145, which falls to about 123 after a Flynn-effect adjustment.
He won the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815.
He won the presidency in 1828 and again in 1832.

What it cannot prove

Leadership and political skill depend on temperament and circumstances more than test-style reasoning.
His schooling was limited, so Cox's childhood-based method has little to work with.
Cox's scale runs higher than modern deviation IQ, by roughly 22 points in one tabulation.

Jackson compared with Jefferson, Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt

Figure	Estimate	Range
Andrew Jackson	125+	125–145
Thomas Jefferson	150+	140–160
Abraham Lincoln	140+	130–150
Theodore Roosevelt	145+	130–155

Psychological profile

Andrew Jackson's IQ is represented here by a retrospective estimate of 125+, not a verified test result. Andrew Jackson is best known for exceptional willpower. The useful question is what the surviving evidence shows, not whether a precise modern score can be recovered.

Forceful, combative and popular. A frontier lawyer and general whose political style was built on loyalty and willpower.

The dominant archetype here is The Warrior. This archetype shapes decision patterns: what feels natural, what creates friction, and what blind spots tend to emerge.

Estimated IQ is 125+. This is a rough estimate based on documented accomplishments and contemporary accounts, not a literal measurement.

Key traits

Willpower
He had little formal schooling and was a prisoner of the British as a boy in the Revolution.
Command
He fought several duels, and a bullet from one stayed in his chest for decades.
Populist Appeal
He signed the Indian Removal Act and enforced it, which cost many lives.

One thing most people do not know

Jackson was the first US president to ride a train.

Andrew Jackson: common questions

Was Andrew Jackson a genius?

Andrew's record supports exceptional achievement, but "genius" is not established by an unverified IQ number. Their The Warrior archetype, combined with Willpower and Command, is a more useful interpretation of their output.

What personality type was Andrew Jackson?

Andrew fits the The Warrior archetype. Key traits include Willpower, Command, and Populist Appeal. This profile helps explain both their strengths and their documented failure modes.

What can we learn from Andrew Jackson?

Andrew's profile teaches that extreme strengths create extreme trade-offs. Their Willpower and Command enabled success but also created recurring friction.