IQ 200
Profoundly Gifted
Quick answer
Yes, and it is extremely rare. An IQ of 200 is higher than all but about 1 in 76 billion people.
Most tests cannot measure this high reliably, so read a 200 as "far above 150" rather than an exact number. The rarity comes from the bell curve model.
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Where 200 falls on the bell curve
200 is plotted on a curve stretched to 200. The tail to its right is real but far too thin to see, which is the visual version of 1 in 76 billion.
IQ 200: beyond what most tests can measure
200 is 6.67 standard deviations above the mean. On a bell curve that works out to about 1 in 76 billion people, which is fewer than one person in the entire world population. 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 200. In a 2,200-person sample the bell curve expects effectively nobody at 200 or higher.
Real populations may not follow the bell curve perfectly in the far tails, so rarity figures this extreme are illustrations, not head counts.
How claims like "200 IQ" arise
Most very high numbers you see online come from one of a few sources, and knowing which one produced a 200 tells you how much weight to put on it.
- 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.
- Repetition without a source. Numbers attached to celebrities are often copied from site to site with no test report behind them.
Famous estimates: Newton, da Vinci and the 160+ club
Isaac Newton and Leonardo da Vinci are usually given estimates of 160 or more, and they are among 37 such profiles here. No estimate on this site goes as high as 200. All are judgements from biographies, not test results.
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 200 or higher?
Scoring 200 or higher is a 0.0000000013% share of everyone. Scaled up to whole populations, that works out as:
| Where | Population | IQ 200 or higher |
|---|---|---|
| UK | about 68 million | fewer than one (effectively zero expected) |
| US | about 335 million | fewer than one (effectively zero expected) |
| World | about 8.1 billion | fewer than one (0.11 expected) |
Even across the whole world of 8.1 billion people, the bell curve predicts fewer than one person at 200 or higher.
About 1 in 170 billion people would score exactly 200, meaning between 199.5 and 200.5 on a continuous scale. In the UK that is fewer than one person.
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 200?
Going from 195 to 200 makes a score 9.2 times rarer, and going on to 205 multiplies the rarity by another 10. Near 200, each single point adds about 58% to the rarity.
What your 200 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 195 to 205 would span rarities from 1 in 8.3 billion to 1 in 780 billion.
Which scale was it on? Score reports do not always say. On the common SD 15 scale your 200 stands as it is. If the report used SD 16 it equals about 194, and if it used SD 24 about 163. The percentile follows the converted number.
Famous people with an estimated IQ near 200
Nobody famous has a verified IQ in most cases, and retrospective estimates are only made for a narrow group.
No historical figure on this site has an estimate within 8 points of 200. Retrospective estimates cluster between about 119 and 190 because they are only made for people with exceptional achievements. That is a selection effect, not a sign that famous or successful people cannot score 200.
Fictional characters near 200
Fan analysis for fun, based on how each character solves problems on screen or on the page.
Is an IQ of 200 possible?
On a standard scale, 200 is six and two thirds standard deviations above the mean. The bell curve puts it at about 1 in 76 billion, which is fewer than one person in the entire world.
When you see 200 claimed, it is almost always a ratio IQ from childhood, a score on a scale with a wider standard deviation, or a historiometric estimate. None of those is equivalent to a modern adult test score of 200.
200 compared with nearby scores
The scores one and five points either side of 200, plus the round numbers from 100 to 150, side by side. Tap any score for its full page.
| IQ | Classification | Percentile | Score higher |
|---|---|---|---|
| IQ 100100 lower | Average | 50th | 50% |
| IQ 11090 lower | High Average | 74.8th | 25% |
| IQ 12080 lower | Superior | 90.9th | 9.1% |
| IQ 13070 lower | Gifted | 97.7th | 2.3% |
| IQ 14060 lower | Gifted | 99.62nd | 0.38% |
| IQ 15050 lower | Genius | 99.96th | 0.043% |
| IQ 1955 lower | Profoundly Gifted | 99.999999987th | 0.000000012% |
| IQ 1991 lower | Profoundly Gifted | 99.9999999979th | 0.0000000021% |
Is 200 a good IQ?
Yes. 200 is far above average, about 1 in 76 billion people on the bell curve. At this height, though, tests lose precision, so a single result of 200 is best read as "well above 150" rather than an exact figure you can compare point for point.
What percentile is an IQ of 200?
An IQ of 200 is at about the 99.9999999986th percentile. That means it is higher than 99.9999999986% of people, while 0.0000000013% score the same or higher, about 1 in 76 billion. The figure assumes the standard scale, with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15.
Is 200 genius level?
By most informal definitions, yes. There is no clinical genius category, but scores above 140 or 145 are often labelled that way, and 200 is well past both. Historically, though, genius is defined by achievement, and no test measures this high precisely.
What does an IQ of 200 mean?
A 200 means your result on a timed reasoning test was 100 points above the average of 100, which this site labels Profoundly Gifted. Most tests cannot measure this high precisely. It reflects one test on one day, and it does not measure knowledge or character.
How rare is an IQ of 200?
200 or higher happens in about 1 in 76 billion people. In the UK that is fewer than one person. Scoring exactly 200, meaning 199.5 to 200.5 on a continuous scale, is about 1 in 170 billion. Both figures come from the standard bell curve, not a census.
What is the mental age for an IQ of 200?
Mental age only really applies to children. Old ratio tests divided mental age by real age, then multiplied by 100, so a 10-year-old with a ratio IQ of 200 would reason like a typical 20-year-old. Modern tests compare adults with people their own age instead.