IQ 191
An IQ of 191 is higher than almost everyone: about 1 in 1.5 billion.
Is your IQ above 191?
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- 99.999th
- Percentile, at least
- 1 in 1.5 billion
- Score 191 or higher
- Profoundly Gifted
- Classification
That is 31 points beyond the ceiling most major tests publish, so the number itself is less certain than its rarity suggests.
An IQ of 191 falls in the profoundly gifted IQ range, which starts at 160. Find 191 on the IQ chart, or check how rare any score is with the IQ rarity calculator.
IQ 191: beyond what most tests can measure
191 is 6.07 standard deviations above the mean. On a bell curve that works out to about 1 in 1.5 billion people, which would mean fewer than one (0.04 expected) in the UK and about 5 worldwide. The bell curve is a model, though, and at this height it is doing most of the work.
No test has enough people in its norm sample to check its accuracy at 191. In a 2,200-person sample the bell curve expects effectively nobody at 191 or higher.
None of this means nobody is this able. It means a single number is not a reliable way to describe them.
How claims like "191 IQ" arise
Most very high numbers you see online come from one of a few sources, and knowing which one produced a 191 tells you how much weight to put on it.
- Different scales. Some tests use a standard deviation of 24, so a 191 there is about 157 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 191. 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.
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 191 or higher?
If IQ follows the standard bell curve, 0.000000066% of people score 191 or higher. Here is what that share means across whole populations:
| Where | Population | IQ 191+ |
|---|---|---|
| UK | 68 million | fewer than one (0.04 expected) |
| US | 335 million | fewer than one (0.22 expected) |
| World | 8.1 billion | 5 |
You would need the whole world to expect about 5 people at 191 or higher.
Exactly 191, counting anyone between 190.5 and 191.5, is about 1 in 3.7 billion. In the US that is fewer than one person, and in the UK fewer than one person.
Treat these as orders of magnitude, not census data. They apply the standard model to everyone, and individual tests have their own norms.
How rare is an IQ of 191?
An IQ of 191 or higher is 7.5 times rarer than 186 or higher, and 196 or higher is 8.4 times rarer again. At this point on the curve, each extra point makes a score about 52% rarer.
What your 191 could really be. Even a good supervised test has a margin of error of roughly 5 points either side, and far more at this height. A true score from 186 to 196 would span rarities from 1 in 200 million to 1 in 13 billion.
Which scale was it on? Score reports do not always say. On the common SD 15 scale your 191 stands as it is. If the report used SD 16 it equals about 185, and if it used SD 24 about 157. The percentile follows the converted number.
Famous people with an estimated IQ near 191
Estimates this high are reserved for a small group of scientists, artists and thinkers. These sit near 191. Every figure below is a retrospective estimate, not a measured score. Open a profile to see the evidence and how confident anyone can be.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's IQ (estimated 190+): Poet, Novelist & Scientist, 18th-19th Century. 1 point below IQ 191.
See all historical IQ estimates or all fictional character IQs.
191 compared with nearby scores
Nearby scores and the round-number landmarks, so you can see how quickly the percentile changes around 191. 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 186 | Profoundly Gifted | >99.999th | 0.00000049% |
| IQ 190 | Profoundly Gifted | >99.999th | 0.000000099% |
| IQ 191 | Profoundly Gifted | >99.999th | 0.000000066% |
| IQ 192 | Profoundly Gifted | >99.999th | 0.000000043% |
| IQ 196 | Profoundly Gifted | >99.999th | 0.0000000078% |
Questions about an IQ of 191
Is 191 a good IQ?
What percentile is an IQ of 191?
Is 191 genius level?
What does an IQ of 191 mean?
How rare is an IQ of 191?
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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 bell curvePlot a score on the distribution
- IQ rarity calculatorHow rare a score is, as 1 in N
- IQ chartEvery band and what it means
Is your IQ above 191?
See where you land next to 191 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