IQ 169

A 169 is 9 points past the ceiling most major tests publish. The model rarity, about 1 in 473,000, describes about 17,000 people worldwide, which is far beyond anything a test has been checked against.

Real populations may not follow the bell curve perfectly in the far tails, so rarity figures this extreme are illustrations, not head counts.

Some tests publish extended norms above 160 for exceptional children. These rest on very small samples and on modelling, so they are best treated as rough rankings.

Most very high numbers you see online come from one of a few sources, and knowing which one produced a 169 tells you how much weight to put on it.

• Ratio IQ. Early childhood tests divided mental age by real age. A 6-year-old solving puzzles like a typical 10.1-year-old got a ratio IQ of 169. Modern deviation IQs do not work this way.
• Different scales. Some tests use a standard deviation of 24, so a 169 there is about 143 on the usual SD 15 scale.
• Historiometric estimates. Researchers such as Catharine Cox (1926) estimated IQs for famous people from biographies. Some of her adjusted estimates went above 200. They are educated guesses, not test results.

42 of the historical profiles on this site carry an estimate of 160 or more, and 14 reach 169 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.

Scoring 169 or higher is a 0.00021% share of everyone. Scaled up to whole populations, that works out as:

Compare the neighbours: 164 or higher is about 1 in 101,000, 169 or higher is 1 in 473,000, and 174 or higher is 1 in 2.5 million. Each point up here adds roughly 38% to the rarity.

What your 169 could really be. At this height the margin of error is wide. Just 5 points either way, 164 or 174, changes the model rarity from 1 in 101,000 to 1 in 2.5 million, which shows how fragile such numbers are.

Which scale was it on? A 169 reported on an SD 16 scale converts to about 165 on the usual SD 15 scale, and one from an SD 24 scale (seen in some Cattell-style results) to about 143. Check which scale your score report used.

Estimates this high are reserved for a small group of scientists, artists and thinkers. These sit near 169. Every figure below is a retrospective estimate, not a measured score. Open a profile to see the evidence and how confident anyone can be.

Nearby scores and the round-number landmarks, so you can see how quickly the percentile changes around 169. Every row links to that score's page.