What Is the Average IQ Score? Meaning Explained

What counts as the normal IQ range?

The normal range is roughly 85 to 115. Those two numbers sit one standard deviation below and above the average, and about 68% of everyone falls inside them. Score 100 and you are dead center. Score 112 and you are above average but still solidly within the everyday range that most people occupy.

A helpful way to read your own number is the percentile, which tells you the share of people you scored higher than:

So a score of 115 is not "just barely above average." It already places you ahead of roughly five out of six people. The scale is steep near the edges, which is why small point differences feel bigger the farther you get from 100.

The bell curve: how IQ scores are distributed

IQ scores follow a bell curve, technically a normal distribution, centered on 100. Most people cluster in the middle, and the population thins out quickly toward both the low and high ends. This is the single most useful mental picture for understanding any IQ number.

Here is how the population splits into the standard classification bands used on the Wechsler scale, along with the approximate share of people in each:

Read down the middle and it is obvious why "average" is such a crowded club: about half of all people land between 90 and 109. The two tails, above 130 and below 70, each hold only about 2% of the population, which is why a score above 130 is the usual cutoff for high-IQ societies like Mensa.

Does the average IQ change with age?

No. The average is 100 at every age, because IQ is age-normed. Your score compares you only to other people in your own age band, not to the population as a whole. A 25-year-old who scores 100 performed at the average level for 25-year-olds; a 70-year-old who scores 100 performed at the average level for 70-year-olds.

This is a common point of confusion, so it is worth being precise. The scaled score stays anchored at 100 across ages, but the raw cognitive abilities behind it do shift over a lifetime. Fluid intelligence, which covers novel problem solving and working memory, tends to peak in the mid-twenties and slowly declines. Crystallized intelligence, which covers vocabulary and accumulated knowledge, keeps growing into the fifties and sixties. Age-norming exists precisely so that these normal changes do not unfairly penalize older adults or flatter younger ones. A 100 means "typical for your age" regardless of how old you are.

A note on national averages

You will often see "average IQ" quoted as a single number for an entire country, and those figures do circulate widely. Treat them carefully. National average estimates come from different tests, different sample sizes, and different years, and the datasets behind them vary a lot in quality. They are interesting as a rough comparison, but they are not measured with anywhere near the precision of an individual, properly normed test score. If you want to explore how those country-level numbers are estimated and why they need cautious interpretation, the pillar guide linked at the top of this article covers it in depth.

For context on our own scale: across 200,000+ answered questions on iq-test-official.site, the same principle holds. Every result is placed on the standard mean-100, standard-deviation-15 scale so your position is comparable to a genuine population baseline rather than to whoever happened to take the test that day.

FAQ

Q: Is an IQ of 100 good or bad?

A: An IQ of 100 is exactly average, neither good nor bad. It places you at the 50th percentile, meaning you scored higher than about half of people and lower than the other half. Anything from 85 to 115 is considered the normal range and covers roughly 68% of the population.

Q: What is considered a high IQ?

A: A high IQ generally starts around 130, the top 2% of the population. That is the common threshold for "very superior" classification and for admission to high-IQ societies like Mensa. Scores from 120 to 129 are labeled "superior" and already sit above roughly 90% of people.

Q: What is the most common IQ score?

A: The most common scores cluster right around 100. Because IQ follows a bell curve, scores pile up in the middle and thin out toward the extremes. About half of all people score between 90 and 109, which is why that band is simply called "Average."

Q: Can I find out my IQ score?

A: Yes. You can take our IQ test free of charge, and it places your result on the standard mean-100 scale. The test itself costs nothing to take; a detailed breakdown of your result, including your percentile and category, is available as a paid report. There is no subscription and no automatic renewal.

References

• American Psychological Association: Intelligence and IQ testing overview
• Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) — Wikipedia summary of norms and classification
• IQ classification bands and population percentages — Wikipedia

Last updated: July 13, 2026