IQ to percentile

A percentile states the rank directly: the percentage of the population scoring at or below a given IQ. These conversions come from the normal distribution that the 100/15 deviation scale is defined on.

The table

Read it as: someone scoring this IQ scores at or above this share of people. The right column restates the same thing as a count out of a thousand, which is often easier to feel.

IQPercentilePer 1,000 people
550.1%1
570.2%2
590.3%3
610.5%5
630.7%7
651%10
671.4%14
691.9%19
712.7%27
733.6%36
754.8%48
776.3%63
798.1%81
8110.3%103
8312.9%129
8515.9%159
8719.3%193
8923.2%232
9127.4%274
9332%320
9536.9%369
9742.1%421
9947.3%473
10152.7%527
10357.9%579
10563.1%631
10768%680
10972.6%726
11176.8%768
11380.7%807
11584.1%841
11787.1%871
11989.7%897
12191.9%919
12393.7%937
12595.2%952
12796.4%964
12997.3%973
13198.1%981
13398.6%986
13599%990
13799.3%993
13999.5%995
14199.7%997
14399.8%998
14599.9%999

How to read a gap

Equal gaps in IQ are not equal gaps in rank. Near the middle of the scale a few points move you past a lot of people, because that is where everyone is bunched. Out at the tails, several points barely change the count, because there is almost nobody left to pass.

From 100 to 110 you pass roughly a quarter of the population. From 130 to 140 you pass around two people in a hundred. The second jump is the larger one in ability terms and the smaller one in rank terms.

Precision at the tails

The percentiles above are exact arithmetic on the normal curve. They are not a statement about how precisely any test can place you. A fixed-length battery has few items hard enough to separate people above about 140, so the measurement error there is wide even though the table looks confident.

This is the practical reason a result should carry an interval. A reported 138 usually means something closer to “somewhere in the low-to-high 130s”, and the scoring method states that explicitly rather than hiding it behind a point estimate.

For what the bands themselves mean, see what IQ scores mean.

Keep reading

  • What IQ scores mean

    The 55–145 range, band by band, and what each one says about rank.

  • What the average IQ is

    Why the average is 100 by construction, and what that does and does not tell you.

  • Types of IQ test

    WAIS, Stanford-Binet, Raven's, Mensa entry tests and online batteries compared.

  • Sample questions

    One worked example from each of the six domains, with the reasoning.

Find out where you actually land.

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