IQ 139
An IQ of 139 is higher than 99.53% of people: about 1 in 215.
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- 99.53rd
- Percentile
- 1 in 215
- Score 139 or higher
- Gifted
- Classification
That puts 139 in the gifted range, above the 130 line commonly quoted for Mensa's 98th percentile entry.
An IQ of 139 falls in the gifted IQ range, which covers 130 to 139. Find 139 on the IQ chart, or check how rare any score is with the IQ rarity calculator.
The gifted range: what an IQ of 139 means
139 is in what is usually called the gifted range, 2.60 standard deviations above average. You would outscore 99.53% of people, and only about 1 in 215 score this high or higher. It sits 9 points past the 130 mark and 6 short of 145.
At this level the advantage can show as speed and depth with abstract material. Standard explanations may feel slow, and working things out from first principles may feel natural.
The Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth followed children identified in roughly the top 1% of reasoning ability. As adults they earned doctorates, patents and senior roles at rates far above the general population.
The Mensa threshold and 139
Is 139 Mensa level? It is above the line: Mensa's entry point is the 98th percentile on an approved, supervised test, usually quoted as 130 on an SD 15 scale. LifeScore is not affiliated with Mensa, and no online score, including ours, counts for entry.
Near the line, the margin of error matters. A single result of 139 is consistent with anything from about 134 to 144, so a supervised retest would very likely still clear 130.
If you are curious about Mensa, the practical step is a supervised test. A result of 139 from an online test is a reasonable signal that it may be worth doing, not proof either way.
How 139 can show up in life
There is no single experience of scoring 139. These are patterns people in the gifted range commonly describe, not rules, and plenty of people here feel entirely ordinary day to day.
- You often see where an argument or a puzzle is going before it is finished.
- Topics can absorb you for long stretches, and depth may matter more to you than breadth.
- Being quick is not the same as being right. Checking your working protects you from confident mistakes.
How many people have an IQ of 139 or higher?
On a bell curve with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15, about 0.47% of people score 139 or higher. Applied to whole populations:
| Where | Population | IQ 139+ |
|---|---|---|
| UK | 68 million | 320,000 |
| US | 335 million | 1.6 million |
| World | 8.1 billion | 38 million |
In a lecture hall of 300, you would expect about one person to score 139 or higher.
Exactly 139, counting anyone between 138.5 and 139.5, is about 1 in 1,100. In the US that is about 300,000 people, and in the UK about 62,000 people.
These are model estimates: a bell curve applied to whole populations, including children, rounded. They are not census counts, and real test norms differ a little from one test to another.
How rare is an IQ of 139?
Going from 134 to 139 makes a score 2.5 times rarer, and going on to 144 multiplies the rarity by another 2.8. Near 139, each single point adds about 22% to the rarity.
What your 139 could really be. Even a good supervised test has a margin of error of roughly 5 points either side. A true score anywhere from 134 to 144 would be consistent with a 139, which spans the 98.8th to the 99.83rd percentile. Short online tests have wider margins.
Which scale was it on? A 139 reported on an SD 16 scale converts to about 137 on the usual SD 15 scale, and one from an SD 24 scale (seen in some Cattell-style results) to about 124. Check which scale your score report used.
Famous people with an estimated IQ near 139
The gifted range is where many retrospective estimates for historical leaders, writers and activists land. These sit near 139, with the figures people look up most listed first. Treat these as informed guesses from biographies rather than results. Each profile sets out what its estimate rests on.
- Cleopatra's IQ (estimated 140): Pharaoh of Egypt, Ancient Egypt. 1 point above IQ 139.
- Charles Darwin's IQ (estimated 140+): Naturalist & Biologist, 19th Century. 1 point above IQ 139.
- Abraham Lincoln's IQ (estimated 140+): President of the United States, 19th Century. 1 point above IQ 139.
- Margaret Thatcher's IQ (estimated 140+): UK Prime Minister, 20th Century. 1 point above IQ 139.
- Sigmund Freud's IQ (estimated 140+): Father of Psychoanalysis, 20th Century. 1 point above IQ 139.
Also estimated near 139: Frederick the Great's IQ (estimated 140+), George Orwell's IQ (estimated 140+), Maya Angelou's IQ (estimated 140+), Wangari Maathai's IQ (estimated 140+), Jane Austen's IQ (estimated 145+), Max Planck's IQ (estimated 150+).
Fictional characters near 139
Just for fun: the fictional characters whose fan-estimated IQs sit near 139.
- Izaya Orihara's IQ (fan estimate 140): Durarara!!. 1 point above IQ 139.
- Miyuki Shirogane's IQ (fan estimate 140): Kaguya-sama: Love Is War. 1 point above IQ 139.
- Patrick Jane's IQ (fan estimate 143): The Mentalist. 4 points above IQ 139.
See all historical IQ estimates or all fictional character IQs.
139 compared with nearby scores
The scores one and five points either side of 139, plus the round numbers from 100 to 150, side by side. Tap any score for its full page.
What an IQ of 139 looks like on the SAT, ACT and other tests
People with an IQ of 139 typically score about 1520 on the SAT and about 33 on the ACT composite. Scores vary a lot from person to person, so the range shows where about four in five land.
| Test | Typical score | Likely range |
|---|---|---|
| SAT | 1520 | 1330 to 1600 |
| ACT | 33 | 26 to 36 |
| GRE | 331 | 316 to 340 |
| LSAT | 168 | 158 to 177 |
| Wonderlic | 36 | 30 to 42 |
| ASVAB | 98 | 91 to 99 |
Estimates from a regression model with published inputs and stated assumptions. How the conversion works, or convert your own score.
Questions about an IQ of 139
Is 139 a good IQ?
What percentile is an IQ of 139?
Is 139 genius level?
What does an IQ of 139 mean?
How rare is an IQ of 139?
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Next in IQ scores
More in IQ scores
- IQ 115 percentileOne step above average
- IQ 120 percentileSuperior range, top 10%
- IQ 125 percentileAbout 1 in 20 people
Related tools
- IQ chartEvery band and what it means
- IQ bell curvePlot a score on the distribution
- IQ rarity calculatorHow rare a score is, as 1 in N
Is your IQ above 139?
See where you land next to 139 with 25 visual reasoning questions.
25 questions · about 12 minutes
Percentiles and counts use a normal distribution with mean 100 and standard deviation 15. Real tests have their own norms, confidence intervals and ceilings, so treat every figure here as an approximation, not a diagnosis. Two tests often give different numbers for the same person: here is why.
By the LifeScore Editorial Team. Reviewed October 2026. Editorial policy