IQ 173
An IQ of 173 is higher than almost everyone: about 1 in 1.8 million.
Is your IQ above 173?
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- 99.999th
- Percentile, at least
- 1 in 1.8 million
- Score 173 or higher
- Profoundly Gifted
- Classification
On the standard scale that is 4.87 standard deviations above average. No test has been checked against enough people to confirm a score this high.
An IQ of 173 falls in the profoundly gifted IQ range, which starts at 160. Find 173 on the IQ chart, or check how rare any score is with the IQ rarity calculator.
IQ 173: beyond what most tests can measure
Taken literally, the bell curve puts 173 at 1 in 1.8 million: about 39 people in the UK and about 4,600 people worldwide. Treat that as an illustration of the model rather than a head count.
Real populations may not follow the bell curve perfectly in the far tails, so rarity figures this extreme are illustrations, not head counts.
None of this means nobody is this able. It means a single number is not a reliable way to describe them.
How claims like "173 IQ" arise
If someone tells you they have a 173, the first question is where the number came from. The usual answers:
- Different scales. Some tests use a standard deviation of 24, so a 173 there is about 146 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.
- 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
Nobody in history has a measured IQ of 173. The highest estimates on this site, for figures such as Isaac Newton and Leonardo da Vinci, come from reading their work and lives, not from tests. 42 profiles here are estimated at 160 or more.
As far as anyone knows, Albert Einstein never took an IQ test. The 160 figure repeated online is an estimate. See the Einstein profile for what it rests on.
How many people have an IQ of 173 or higher?
On a bell curve with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15, about 0.000057% of people score 173 or higher. Applied to whole populations:
| Where | Population | IQ 173+ |
|---|---|---|
| UK | 68 million | 39 |
| US | 335 million | 190 |
| World | 8.1 billion | 4,600 |
In a city the size of London, about 9 million, you would expect about 5 people to score 173 or higher.
Exactly 173, counting anyone between 172.5 and 173.5, is about 1 in 5.2 million. In the US that is about 64 people, and in the UK about 13 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 173?
An IQ of 173 or higher is 5.1 times rarer than 168 or higher, and 178 or higher is 5.7 times rarer again. At this point on the curve, each extra point makes a score about 40% rarer.
What your 173 could really be. No test is precise this far out. Even a 5-point error band, from 168 to 178, spans a rarity gap of about 29 times, so the exact number matters much less than "very far above average".
Which scale was it on? A 173 reported on an SD 16 scale converts to about 168 on the usual SD 15 scale, and one from an SD 24 scale (seen in some Cattell-style results) to about 146. Check which scale your score report used.
Famous people with an estimated IQ near 173
Estimates this high are reserved for a small group of scientists, artists and thinkers. These sit near 173. None of these are test scores. They are estimates from biographical evidence, and each profile explains its basis.
- Emmy Noether's IQ (estimated 170+): Mathematician, 20th Century. 3 points below IQ 173.
- John von Neumann's IQ (estimated 170+): Mathematician & Computer Pioneer, 20th Century. 3 points below IQ 173.
- Leonhard Euler's IQ (estimated 170+): Mathematician, 18th Century. 3 points below IQ 173.
See all historical IQ estimates or all fictional character IQs.
173 compared with nearby scores
Nearby scores and the round-number landmarks, so you can see how quickly the percentile changes around 173. Every row links to that score's 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 168 | Profoundly Gifted | >99.999th | 0.00029% |
| IQ 172 | Profoundly Gifted | >99.999th | 0.000079% |
| IQ 173 | Profoundly Gifted | >99.999th | 0.000057% |
| IQ 174 | Profoundly Gifted | >99.999th | 0.00004% |
| IQ 178 | Profoundly Gifted | >99.999th | 0.00001% |
Questions about an IQ of 173
Is 173 a good IQ?
What percentile is an IQ of 173?
Is 173 genius level?
What does an IQ of 173 mean?
How rare is an IQ of 173?
What is the mental age for an IQ of 173?
Next in IQ scores
More in IQ scores
- IQ 125 percentileAbout 1 in 20 people
- IQ 130 percentileThe usual gifted line
- IQ 140 percentileVery superior, rarer than 1 in 200
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 173?
See where you land next to 173 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