IQ Score Chart: Classifications and Percentiles at a Glance

An IQ score chart maps every score range to a classification label, the share of the population in that range, and the matching percentile — from Extremely Low (below 70, bottom 2%) to Very Superior (130+, top 2%). Because all modern IQ tests are standardized to a mean of 100 with a standard deviation of 15, one chart covers them all. Below you'll find the complete chart, a score-to-percentile conversion table, and a plain-English guide to reading both.

The complete IQ score chart

This chart uses the Wechsler-style classification bands found on the most widely administered tests:

Two things stand out immediately. First, the middle dominates: half of all people score between 90 and 109, and more than two-thirds fall between 85 and 115. Second, the tails are thin — the entire range above 130 holds only about 2% of the population, and 145+ is one person in a thousand. The population percentages and the percentile column say the same thing two ways: the share tells you how crowded a band is, while the percentile tells you where its edges rank. For the story behind each classification label, see the IQ scale explained.

Individual scores converted to percentiles

The chart above works in ranges; this table converts specific scores. The percentile tells you what share of the population scores at or below that level:

For every score in between — and the math behind the conversion — see the full IQ percentile table.

How to read the chart

Start with the percentile, not the raw number. "IQ 120" sounds abstract; "higher than 91% of people" is concrete. The percentile is also the only fair way to compare results from different tests, because a few scales (such as the Cattell, which uses a standard deviation of 24) attach different numbers to the same rank.

Next, notice that equal point gaps are not equal rarity gaps. Moving from 100 to 115 takes you past roughly a third of the population; moving from 130 to 145 takes you past less than 2%. The bell curve compresses the middle and stretches the tails, which is why score differences near the extremes mean much bigger differences in rank — and why claims of stratospheric scores deserve skepticism, as we explain in the highest IQ ever recorded.

Finally, read bands, not borders. Every IQ score carries measurement error — a typical 95% confidence interval is around ±5 points — so a person who scores 108 today might plausibly score 112 next month. The difference between 109 ("Average") and 111 ("High Average") is a labeling artifact, not a real cognitive boundary.

Quick answers the chart gives you

Most people arrive at an IQ chart with one specific score in mind. Here are the lookups people ask for most often, read straight off the tables above:

• Is 100 average? Yes — by construction it is the exact midpoint, the 50th percentile.
• Is 110 above average? Yes: 75th percentile, the bottom edge of the High Average band.
• Is 115 a high score? It is one standard deviation above the mean — 84th percentile — solidly above average without being rare.
• Is 130 genius level?No test defines "genius," but 130 is the standard gifted cutoff at the 98th percentile — see what is a good IQ for the practical context.
• How rare is 160? Around 1 in 30,000 by the math — but standard tests are not reliable that far out, so treat such numbers as extrapolations rather than measurements.

Where the numbers come from

The chart is a direct consequence of how tests are built. When a test is normed, a large representative sample takes it, and raw results are mapped onto a normal distribution with a mean fixed at 100and a standard deviation of 15. From those two numbers, everything in the chart follows mathematically: about 68% of scores land between 85 and 115, about 95% between 70 and 130, and the percentile of any score can be computed from the curve. No committee decided that 2% of people should be "Very Superior" — that is simply the area under the curve beyond two standard deviations.

Because scores are age-normed, the chart is also valid at every age: a 14-year-old's 120 and a 60-year-old's 120 each mean the 91st percentile within their own age group. That norming is redone generation by generation, which keeps the chart current even as raw test performance drifts over decades — the reason your grandparents' chart and yours both center on 100 despite the Flynn effect, as explained in average IQ by age.

Why classification labels differ between charts

If you compare IQ charts from different sources, you will notice the labels shift while the numbers stay put. Older Stanford-Binet charts used terms like "genius" for the top band; the current Wechsler manuals prefer neutral phrasing such as "Extremely High" where older editions said "Very Superior." Some charts split the top band at 145 (as ours does), others at 140 or 150. None of this changes what a score means: the underlying percentile is fixed by the bell curve, and the words draped over it are editorial choices. When two charts seem to disagree about your score, check the percentile column — it will almost always agree.

Using the chart on your own result

A sensible reading of your own score goes in three steps. Locate your percentile; note the classification band, holding its edges loosely; then ask what the score is for. As context for education or work, the practical differences between neighboring bands are modest — IQ predicts outcomes at correlations around 0.5 at best, leaving most of the variance to effort, opportunity and skill, as we cover in what is a good IQ.

One honest caveat applies to any score you obtain online: web-based tests, including well-constructed ones, produce estimates. They are useful for self-knowledge and for tracking your own performance, but they are not clinical diagnoses, and no chart lookup substitutes for a professionally administered assessment when formal stakes are involved. Used that way — as a map rather than a verdict — the IQ score chart does exactly what a good reference should: it turns an opaque number into an honest statement about where a performance stands.