What is the average IQ?

By design, the average IQ is 100. Modern IQ tests are scaled so that the mean score in the general population is 100, with most people clustering around that value.

What is considered a high IQ?

On the common scale where the standard deviation is 15, scores around 130 and above are usually described as "very high" and fall in roughly the top 2% of people. Labels vary between test publishers, so the exact wording is a convention rather than a fixed rule.

What percentage of people have an IQ above 130?

On a normal distribution with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15, about 2% of people score at or above 130. Around 16% score above 115, and about 50% score above 100.

Is a higher IQ always better?

Not necessarily. IQ measures certain reasoning abilities, but it does not capture creativity, emotional skills, motivation, knowledge or character. It is one useful indicator, not a measure of a person's overall worth or potential.

What Is a Good IQ Score? IQ Percentiles & the Bell Curve Explained

A good IQ score is usually anything above the average of 100. On the most common scale, about two-thirds of people score between 85 and 115, and roughly the top 2% score 130 or higher. But a single number means little without understanding the bell curve it comes from — so here is how IQ scores are actually built and read.

IQ is a relative score, not a raw count

An IQ score doesn't measure how many questions you answered correctly in absolute terms. Instead, it compares your performance to that of other people — typically others your own age. Test makers collect a large, representative sample, then scale the results so that the average is set to 100. Your IQ tells you where you sit relative to that average.

Because of this design, the average is always 100 by definition. That is also why a serious test — including our own IQ test — adjusts scores by age: a score is only meaningful when compared with the right peer group. We explain that in more detail in our article on IQ and age.

The bell curve and standard deviation

IQ scores follow an approximately normal distribution — the familiar bell curve. Most people fall near the middle, and fewer people appear as you move toward either extreme. The spread is described by the standard deviation (SD), which on most modern tests is 15 points.

The IQ bell curve (mean 100, standard deviation 15). Each band of 15 points marks one standard deviation from the average.

Reading from the curve, on a 15-point scale:

About 68% of people score within one SD of the mean — between 85 and 115.
About 95% score within two SDs — between 70 and 130.
About 2% score above 130, and about 2% below 70.

What the score bands mean

Different publishers use slightly different labels, but the broad bands below are typical and match the classification we show on our results. Treat the wording as a convention, not a hard scientific boundary:

130+ — very high; roughly the top 2%.
120–129 — superior.
110–119 — above average.
90–109 — average (where most people fall).
80–89 — below average.
Below 80 — well below average.

Percentiles: a clearer way to read your score

A percentile tells you the share of people you scored higher than. An IQ of 100 is the 50th percentile (you scored higher than about half of people); 115 is roughly the 84th percentile; and 130 is around the 98th percentile. Percentiles are often more intuitive than the raw IQ number because they don't depend on which scale a test uses.

Watch the scale. Most tests use a standard deviation of 15, but a few (such as the Cattell scale) use 16 or other values, which shifts what a given number means. Always check the percentile, not just the number — this matters a lot for thresholds like Mensa's, covered in how to join Mensa.

How much should you trust a single score?

No test gives a perfect, fixed number. Scores carry a margin of error and can vary with fatigue, practice, motivation and test conditions. That is especially worth remembering for unsupervised tests taken at home — a topic we treat honestly in how accurate online IQ tests are. A good score is informative, but it is a snapshot, not a verdict.