IQ chart: levels, scale and score ranges
The average IQ range is 90 to 109, which holds 49.5% of people. 110 to 119 is high average, 120 to 129 superior, and 130 and above very superior.
| IQ range | Level | People |
|---|---|---|
| 130 and above | Very superior97.7% and above | 2.3% |
| 120 to 129 | Superior90.9% to 97.7% | 6.8% |
| 110 to 119 | High average74.8% to 90.9% | 16.1% |
| 90 to 109 | Average25.2% to 74.8% | 49.5% |
| 80 to 89 | Low average9.1% to 25.2% | 16.1% |
| 70 to 79 | Borderline2.3% to 9.1% | 6.8% |
| 69 and below | Extremely lowBelow 2.3% | 2.3% |
The matching row is highlighted in the table above.
IQ 130 is very superior (130 and above). It is higher than 97.7% of people, about 1 in 44 score this high or higher.
IQ 130: what it meansMean 100, standard deviation 15. Levels are the Wechsler (WAIS-IV) descriptors.
What is a normal IQ range?
A normal IQ range is 90 to 109, the band the Wechsler tests call average. 49.5% of people score inside it. Widen it to 85 to 115, one standard deviation either side of 100, and it holds about 68%.
Scores from 80 to 119, low average through high average, together cover about 82% of people. Most of the variation you meet in daily life sits in that span. The IQ bell curve shows how those shares are drawn.
What is the IQ scale?
The IQ scale is a standard score, not a percentage of questions right. When a test is normed, the average of a large sample is set to 100 and the standard deviation to 15. Every 15 points is one step from the middle: 115 is one step up, 130 is two, 145 is three.
That is why the shares in the table hold on any test that uses a standard deviation of 15. The Wechsler tests, which clinicians use most, report full-scale scores from 40 to 160.
IQ score chart: scores from 55 to 160, every five points
Each row gives the level, the percentile and how rare the score is. Click a score for its own page, such as IQ 120, IQ 125 or IQ 134, or use the lookup above to highlight a row.
| IQ score | Level | Percentile | Rarity |
|---|---|---|---|
| IQ 55 | Extremely low | 0.13% | 1 in 741 |
| IQ 60 | Extremely low | 0.38% | 1 in 261 |
| IQ 65 | Extremely low | 0.98% | 1 in 102 |
| IQ 70 | Borderline | 2.3% | 1 in 44 |
| IQ 75 | Borderline | 4.8% | 1 in 21 |
| IQ 80 | Low average | 9.1% | 1 in 11 |
| IQ 85 | Low average | 15.9% | 1 in 6.3 |
| IQ 90 | Average | 25.2% | 1 in 4 |
| IQ 95 | Average | 36.9% | 1 in 2.7 |
| IQ 100 | Average | 50.0% | 1 in 2 |
| IQ 105 | Average | 63.1% | 1 in 2.7 |
| IQ 110 | High average | 74.8% | 1 in 4 |
| IQ 115 | High average | 84.1% | 1 in 6.3 |
| IQ 120 | Superior | 90.9% | 1 in 11 |
| IQ 125 | Superior | 95.2% | 1 in 21 |
| IQ 130 | Very superior | 97.7% | 1 in 44 |
| IQ 135 | Very superior | 99.0% | 1 in 102 |
| IQ 140 | Very superior | 99.62% | 1 in 261 |
| IQ 145 | Very superior | 99.87% | 1 in 741 |
| IQ 150 | Very superior | 99.96% | 1 in 2,330 |
| IQ 155 | Very superior | 99.99% | 1 in 8,140 |
| IQ 160 | Very superior | 99.997% | 1 in 31,600 |
How to read the chart
Say a test reports 124. Find the 120 to 129 row: that is the superior level. The 120 row shows the 90.9% percentile and the 125 row 95.2%, so 124 lands between them, at about 94.5%. It is higher than roughly 95% of people.
For a figure at exactly your score, use the IQ percentile calculator. For the rarity of that score as 1 in N, use how rare is my IQ.
IQ classification chart by test
The numbers match across tests. The names do not. Here is the same score range under each system. For what the words mean in practice, see IQ classifications explained.
| IQ | WAIS-IV | WISC-V | Stanford-Binet 5 | Terman 1916 (historical) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 140 and above | Very superior | Extremely high | Gifted or very advanced to 144; very gifted or highly advanced from 145 | Near genius or genius |
| 130 to 139 | Very superior | Extremely high | Gifted or very advanced | Very superior |
| 120 to 129 | Superior | Very high | Superior | Very superior |
| 110 to 119 | High average | High average | High average | Superior |
| 90 to 109 | Average | Average | Average | Normal or average |
| 80 to 89 | Low average | Low average | Low average | Not shown |
| 70 to 79 | Borderline | Very low | Borderline impaired or delayed | Not shown |
| 69 and below | Extremely low | Extremely low | Mildly impaired or delayed (55 to 69) | Not shown |
Terman's 1916 Stanford-Binet used its own cut-offs, and its labels for scores below 90 used terms now considered offensive, so they are not repeated here. Modern editions dropped them. The Stanford-Binet 5 also has bands below 70 that are not shown.
Why IQ charts do not always agree
Different standard deviations
Most modern tests use a standard deviation of 15. Older Stanford-Binet editions used 16, and the Cattell III B uses 24. The same position on the curve gets a different number: 130 on a Wechsler test is about 148 on the Cattell scale.Old norms
Raw scores rose across the 20th century, a pattern called the Flynn effect. A meta-analysis by Pietschnig and Voracek (2015) put the gain at roughly 2 to 3 points a decade. A test normed long ago can flatter today's test takers. See the Flynn effect and renorming.Measurement error
Any single score carries an error of a few points either side. A 128 and a 132 are not meaningfully different. The IQ confidence interval calculator shows the range.
What a level does and does not mean
A level says where a score sits compared with a norm group. It does not say what a person can do, how much they will earn or how well they will do in school.
- Levels describe groups. Two people at the same score can differ a lot in their strengths.
- Bands have hard edges but ability does not. 109 and 110 are one point apart, not a different kind of person.
- Scores below 70 and above 130 carry the most error, because few people were in the norm sample there. A hard IQ test is built to reach that end, but it cannot remove the error.
- Labels such as "borderline" are descriptive. A diagnosis needs a full professional assessment, not one score.
- Online estimates, ours included, are not clinical tests. Use the chart as a guide, and ask a psychologist for a score that will be used for a decision. How much an IQ test costs shows what each route charges.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good IQ score?
What are the IQ levels?
What IQ is gifted?
Why do IQ charts show different labels?
What is the highest IQ on the chart?
Is an IQ chart the same as a percentile chart?
Next in IQ calculators
More in IQ calculators
- Mensa eligibility checkerQualifying scores by test
- Are you smarter than AI?Your score against the models
- Mental age calculatorThe classic ratio formula
Related tools
- SAT, ACT and GRE to IQConvert a test score to IQ
Find your own place on the chart.
Answer 25 visual reasoning questions and see which level your score falls in.
25 questions · about 12 minutes
Sources
- Wikipedia, IQ classification (Wechsler, Stanford-Binet 5 and Terman 1916 tables)
- Wikipedia, Flynn effect
- Wechsler, D. (1939). The Measurement of Adult Intelligence. Williams & Wilkins.
- Pietschnig, J., and Voracek, M. (2015). One century of global IQ gains: a formal meta-analysis of the Flynn effect (1909 to 2013). Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10(3).
- Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV) technical and interpretive manual, Pearson (2008).
- Percentiles and rarity on this page are computed from the normal distribution with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15.