IQ 164
An IQ of 164 is higher than 99.999% of people: about 1 in 101,000.
Is your IQ above 164?
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- 99.999th
- Percentile
- 1 in 101,000
- Score 164 or higher
- Profoundly Gifted
- Classification
That is 4 points beyond the ceiling most major tests publish, so the number itself is less certain than its rarity suggests.
An IQ of 164 falls in the profoundly gifted IQ range, which starts at 160. Find 164 on the IQ chart, or check how rare any score is with the IQ rarity calculator.
IQ 164: beyond what most tests can measure
164 is 4.27 standard deviations above the mean. On a bell curve that works out to about 1 in 101,000 people, which would mean about 680 in the UK and about 80,000 worldwide. The bell curve is a model, though, and at this height it is doing most of the work.
Major individually administered adult tests typically report full-scale scores up to about 160. A reported number above that usually comes from extended norms, a different scale or extrapolation.
None of this means nobody is this able. It means a single number is not a reliable way to describe them.
How claims like "164 IQ" arise
A 164 almost never comes from a modern, supervised adult test. It usually comes from somewhere like this:
- Ratio IQ. Early childhood tests divided mental age by real age. A 6-year-old solving puzzles like a typical 9.8-year-old got a ratio IQ of 164. Modern deviation IQs do not work this way.
- Different scales. Some tests use a standard deviation of 24, so a 164 there is about 140 on the usual SD 15 scale.
- Unnormed online quizzes. A test with no norm data can print any number. Very high outputs usually say more about the scoring than the person.
Famous estimates: Newton, da Vinci and the 160+ club
42 of the historical profiles on this site carry an estimate of 160 or more, and 20 reach 164 or higher. Isaac Newton and Leonardo da Vinci are the classic examples. Their numbers are retrospective judgements based on their work, not test scores.
Two people with identical estimates can have very different evidence behind them. Each profile explains what its estimate is based on and how confident anyone can be.
How many people have an IQ of 164 or higher?
On a bell curve with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15, about 0.00099% of people score 164 or higher. Applied to whole populations:
| Where | Population | IQ 164+ |
|---|---|---|
| UK | 68 million | 680 |
| US | 335 million | 3,300 |
| World | 8.1 billion | 80,000 |
In a packed Wembley Stadium, about 90,000 people, you would expect about one person to score 164 or higher.
About 1 in 340,000 people would score exactly 164, meaning between 163.5 and 164.5 on a continuous scale. In the UK that is about 200 people.
The figures are bell curve estimates for whole populations, children included, and rounded. Real tests are normed separately and will differ a little.
How rare is an IQ of 164?
Compare the neighbours: 159 or higher is about 1 in 23,900, 164 or higher is 1 in 101,000, and 169 or higher is 1 in 473,000. Each point up here adds roughly 35% to the rarity.
What your 164 could really be. If you retook a well-made test, landing at 159 or at 169 would be unremarkable. That is the difference between beating 99.996% and 99.99978% of people, and short online tests are noisier still.
Which scale was it on? Most modern tests use a standard deviation of 15, which is what this page assumes. If your 164 came from a test using an SD of 16, it is about 160 on the SD 15 scale. From an SD 24 scale, used by some Cattell-style reports, it is about 140.
Famous people with an estimated IQ near 164
Estimates this high are reserved for a small group of scientists, artists and thinkers. These sit near 164. Every figure below is a retrospective estimate, not a measured score. Open a profile to see the evidence and how confident anyone can be.
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's IQ (estimated 165+): Composer, 18th Century. 1 point above IQ 164.
- Archimedes' IQ (estimated 165+): Mathematician & Inventor, Ancient Greece. 1 point above IQ 164.
- James Clerk Maxwell's IQ (estimated 165+): Theoretical Physicist, 19th Century. 1 point above IQ 164.
- Aristotle's IQ (estimated 160+): Philosopher & Polymath, Ancient Greece. 4 points below IQ 164.
- Immanuel Kant's IQ (estimated 160+): Philosopher, 18th Century. 4 points below IQ 164.
Also estimated near 164: David Hume's IQ (estimated 160+), Johann Sebastian Bach's IQ (estimated 160+), John Stuart Mill's IQ (estimated 160+), Richard Feynman's IQ (estimated 160+), Karl Marx's IQ (estimated 155+), Niels Bohr's IQ (estimated 155+).
Fictional characters near 164
Just for fun: the fictional characters whose fan-estimated IQs sit near 164.
- Bruce Banner's IQ (fan estimate 165): Marvel Cinematic Universe. 1 point above IQ 164.
- Senku Ishigami's IQ (fan estimate 165): Dr. Stone. 1 point above IQ 164.
- Will Hunting's IQ (fan estimate 155): Good Will Hunting. 9 points below IQ 164.
See all historical IQ estimates or all fictional character IQs.
164 compared with nearby scores
The scores one and five points either side of 164, plus the round numbers from 100 to 150, side by side. Tap any score for its full page.
| IQ | Classification | Percentile | Score higher |
|---|---|---|---|
| IQ 100 | Average | 50th | 50% |
| IQ 110 | High Average | 74.8th | 25% |
| IQ 120 | Superior | 90.9th | 9.1% |
| IQ 130 | Gifted | 97.7th | 2.3% |
| IQ 140 | Gifted | 99.62nd | 0.38% |
| IQ 150 | Genius | 99.96th | 0.043% |
| IQ 159 | Genius | 99.996th | 0.0042% |
| IQ 163 | Profoundly Gifted | 99.999th | 0.0013% |
| IQ 164 | Profoundly Gifted | 99.999th | 0.00099% |
| IQ 165 | Profoundly Gifted | >99.999th | 0.00073% |
| IQ 169 | Profoundly Gifted | >99.999th | 0.00021% |
Questions about an IQ of 164
Is 164 a good IQ?
What percentile is an IQ of 164?
Is 164 genius level?
What does an IQ of 164 mean?
How rare is an IQ of 164?
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Next in IQ scores
More in IQ scores
- SAT, ACT and GRE to IQConvert a test score to IQ
- IQ 110 percentileHigh average, the top quarter
- IQ 115 percentileOne step above average
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 164?
See where you land next to 164 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