If you've just received an IQ score and want to know exactly where it sits, a chart mapping scores to percentiles is the fastest way to find out. Below is a complete breakdown of the standard IQ bell curve, along with plain-language context for each band — because a number alone rarely tells the full story.
The Full IQ Score Chart
Modern IQ scales are normed to a mean of 100 with a standard deviation of 15. The classification labels in the chart below follow the standard Wechsler-style scheme used by the widely published Wechsler intelligence scales (WAIS and WISC), which maps that structure onto a predictable, well-studied distribution:
| IQ Range | Percentile Range | Classification | Share of Population |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below 70 | Below 2nd | Extremely low | ~2.2% |
| 70–79 | 2nd–9th | Borderline | ~6.7% |
| 80–89 | 9th–25th | Low average | ~16.1% |
| 90–109 | 25th–73rd | Average | ~50% |
| 110–119 | 73rd–90th | High average | ~16.1% |
| 120–129 | 90th–97th | Superior | ~6.7% |
| 130–144 | 97th–99.6th | Gifted | ~2.1% |
| 145+ | Above 99.6th | Highly gifted | ~0.1% |
Reading this table, the single most important takeaway is that half of the entire population falls between 90 and 109. That's an enormous swath of "average" — far wider than most people intuitively assume when they hear the word.
How our own test labels compare: The Wechsler-style bands above are the standard published reference classification, not our test's result labels. Our free IQ test reports your result using this site's own six bands, which group the same 60–145 scale slightly differently: 60–69 Below Average, 70–84 Low Average, 85–100 Average, 101–114 Above Average, 115–129 Superior, and 130–145 Exceptional. If the label on your result doesn't line up with the classification in the chart above, that's why — both describe the same bell curve, just with different band boundaries and names.
What a Percentile Actually Tells You
A percentile answers a very specific question: "out of 100 people who took this test, how many scored at or below me?" A percentile of 84 means you scored higher than 84 out of 100 typical test-takers — not that you got 84% of questions right. This distinction trips up a lot of people reading their first result, so it's worth repeating: percentile and percent-correct are two completely different numbers.
Because the bell curve is densest in the middle and sparse at the tails, small differences in raw score near the average translate into modest percentile shifts, while the same size of difference near the extremes translates into a much bigger percentile jump. Going from IQ 100 to 108 might move you from the 50th to the 70th percentile. Going from IQ 130 to 138, by contrast, might move you from the 98th to the 99.6th percentile — a much larger percentile leap for the same eight-point gain, simply because there are so few people out at that tail of the curve to begin with.
Standard Deviation, Visualized
The "15-point standard deviation" convention means each 15-point band above or below 100 covers a predictable slice of the population:
- 100 ± 15 (85–115): roughly 68% of people — about two in three.
- 100 ± 30 (70–130): roughly 95% of people — nineteen in twenty.
- 100 ± 45 (55–145): roughly 99.7% of people — all but a handful in a thousand.
This "68-95-99.7 rule" is a property of any normal distribution, not something specific to IQ testing — but it's especially useful here because it means you can sanity-check any reported score against how rare it should be. A score of 145 or above should be genuinely uncommon — roughly 1 in 750 people — and if a test result claims otherwise, that's a sign the test itself may not be well-normed.
Reading Your Own Result
When you get a score back from a well-constructed test, look for three things: the score itself, the percentile it corresponds to, and — ideally — some indication of the margin of error around it. A score reported as "112 (79th percentile)" is more informative than "112" alone, because it tells you immediately how that number compares to a broad population baseline.
It's also worth remembering that different tests, normed on different samples with different item sets, can produce modestly different scores for the same person. This isn't a flaw — it reflects normal measurement variation, which is why psychologists typically treat any single score as an estimate within a range (often ±5 points) rather than an exact figure.
Why the Chart Matters More Than the Single Number
A chart like this reframes an isolated score into context. "112" in isolation feels arbitrary. "112, which places you above roughly 79% of test-takers, squarely in the high-average band" is something you can actually reason about. That's the entire purpose of standardized scoring: turning a raw count of correct answers into a number that's comparable across people, tests, and time.
For the plain-language meaning behind these bands, see our companion guide on what is a good IQ score; for how the same curve behaves across the lifespan, see average IQ by age.
Frequently asked questions
What percentile is an IQ of 120?
An IQ of 120 sits at roughly the 91st percentile, meaning you scored higher than about 91 out of 100 people in the reference population. On the standard scale (mean 100, standard deviation 15), 120 is 1.33 standard deviations above the mean. It falls in the "superior" or "above-average" band on most classification charts — clearly above typical, but far more common than most people assume.
How rare is an IQ of 130?
An IQ of 130 is reached by about 2% of the population — roughly 1 in 50 people — and marks close to the 98th percentile on a 15-point-deviation scale. It is the threshold many gifted programs and high-IQ societies such as Mensa use for qualification. A few points higher or lower changes that rarity noticeably, because the bell curve thins out quickly this far from the average.
What is the average IQ score?
The average IQ score is 100 by definition, on every properly normed test and at every age. IQ scales are deliberately built so the midpoint of the reference population lands on 100, with a standard deviation of 15 points. That means roughly two-thirds of people score between 85 and 115, and about 95% score between 70 and 130 — the wide middle of the bell curve.
Sources
- Neisser, U., Boodoo, G., Bouchard, T. J., Boykin, A. W., Brody, N., Ceci, S. J., Halpern, D. F., Loehlin, J. C., Perloff, R., Sternberg, R. J., & Urbina, S. (1996). Intelligence: Knowns and unknowns. American Psychologist, 51(2), 77–101.
- Wechsler, D. (2008). Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale — Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV) [Database record]. APA PsycTests.
- Flynn, J. R. (1987). Massive IQ gains in 14 nations: What IQ tests really measure. Psychological Bulletin, 101(2), 171–191.
- Mensa International. (n.d.). Getting your IQ tested — frequently asked questions (98th-percentile qualifying criterion). Retrieved July 17, 2026.
Find your place on the chart
If you want to see exactly where your own reasoning and pattern-recognition skills land on this chart, take the free IQ test for an instant, percentile-scored result. You can also use our percentile calculator to convert any IQ score into its exact percentile standing without retaking a test.
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