Is an IQ of 125 good?
Yes. An IQ of 125 is in the superior range, called very high on current children's tests. It is well above average and higher than about 9 in 10 people.
Where 125 sits on the bell curve
An IQ of 125 is 25 points above the average of 100, or 1.67 standard deviations. It is higher than about 95% of people of the same age, shown by the shaded area below. This is the thinning right shoulder of the curve, where only about 1 person in 15 scores in the whole 120 to 129 band.
On other IQ scales, the same result would be about 127 on a test with a standard deviation of 16, such as older editions of the Stanford-Binet, and 140 on the Cattell scale, which uses 24. Why scales differ.
IQ 125 meaning: a closer look
With an IQ of 125, about 95 people in every 100 would score lower, so you are roughly in the top 5%. One person in about 21 scores this high or above. It is exactly five points from both the start of the superior range and the 130 level, so a professional retest could plausibly come out anywhere between superior and very superior. Some gifted and talented programmes use cut-offs in this area, though policies differ widely from one place to another.
Childhood IQ and dementia: what Scotland's 1932 test scores revealed
In 1932, Scottish children born in 1921 sat the same mental ability test at about age 11. Decades later, researchers linked those archived scores to medical records. In a 2000 study in Neurology, Aberdeen children who went on to develop late-onset dementia had scored significantly lower than their classmates, while early-onset dementia showed no such link. A much larger 2017 follow-up of 16,370 boys and 16,097 girls found that, compared with children who scored 115 or above, those below 85 had a higher dementia risk. The pattern was clear in women (hazard ratio 1.51) but weaker and uncertain in men (1.19).
An IQ of 125 would have placed a child in the top group of that study, the group everyone else was compared with. One popular explanation for links like this is cognitive reserve: the idea that a brain with more capacity, or more education and mentally demanding work built on it, may cope with damage for longer before symptoms show. But these are observational findings about averages across thousands of people. They do not prove that IQ itself is the cause, and they are not a promise about any one person. Many people with a 125 IQ develop dementia, and many people with lower scores never do.
Sources: Whalley et al. (2000), "Childhood mental ability and dementia", Neurology; Russ et al. (2017), "Childhood Cognitive Ability and Incident Dementia: The 1932 Scottish Mental Survey Cohort into their 10th Decade", Epidemiology.
What 125 looks like among real people
If you lined up 100 people of your age, about 95 would score lower than 125 and about 5 would score the same or higher. The orange dot marks your place in the line.
In most groups of a few dozen people, a score like this would be among the highest.
How precise is a score of 125?
No IQ test measures to the exact point. On a professional test, a result of 125 usually comes with a likely range of about five points either way: 120 to 130. That range runs from the 91st to the 98th percentile, and it crosses from superior into very superior.
At this level, a single test can place you a few points either side of a line that some people care about, such as 130. A full professional test, or a retest, is the only way to know which side you are on.
On the Assessivo test, 125 is the score for 28 correct answers out of 36. How our score is worked out.
So if you scored 125 once, a retest on another day could reasonably land anywhere from 120 to 130. Online tests are less precise still, so treat any online result as a rough estimate.
IQ 125 and mental age in children
Early IQ tests for children worked with a "mental age", the age whose typical performance a child matched. The IQ was that mental age divided by the child's real age, times 100. Turned around, the formula shows what a score of 125 would have meant for children of different ages: working ahead of their years.
| Real age | Mental age at IQ 125 |
|---|---|
| 5 | 6 years 3 months |
| 7 | 8 years 9 months |
| 9 | 11 years 3 months |
| 11 | 13 years 9 months |
| 13 | 16 years 3 months |
The same 125 stands for a gap of about 1 year 3 months at age 5 but 3 years 3 months at 13, because the formula scales with age. That is one reason it broke down for teenagers and adults, whose test performance stops rising every year. Today's tests compare you with people of the same age instead, so a mental age is only a way to picture a child's score, never a description of an adult.
What an IQ of 125 means for you
It sits in the middle of the superior band, which runs from 120 to 129.
- You likely solve unfamiliar problems quickly and handle complex, abstract information well.
- Demanding academic and technical work often suits people in this range, although many other qualities decide success.
- It is below the 130 level that Mensa usually requires, but within reach of it on a good day or a different test.
How far 125 is from other levels
Famous names reported near 125
Very few famous people have published IQ scores, and most numbers online are invented. These are the ones with a documented report or a published estimate. Each is labelled so you can see what kind of figure it is.
Scored 123 on Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices, given by Der Spiegel in Baku in 1987, and 135 on a test compiled by Hans Eysenck in the same session, a reminder that one person can score quite differently on two tests.
Tested score · Der Spiegel, "Genieblitze und Blackouts" (1987)How 125 compares with nearby scores
Want a score that isn't listed, or the share of people between two scores? Try the IQ calculator.
| IQ | Percentile | Classification | Score this high or higher |
|---|---|---|---|
| 115 | 84th | High average | 1 in 6 |
| 120 | 91st | Superior | 1 in 11 |
| 125 | 95th | Superior | 1 in 21 |
| 130 | 98th | Very superior | 1 in 44 |
| 135 | 99th | Very superior | 1 in 102 |
Questions about an IQ of 125
What percentile is an IQ of 125?
An IQ of 125 is at about the 95th percentile, which means it is higher than about 95% of people of the same age.
Is 125 a high IQ?
It is well above average. Most definitions reserve "high IQ" for 130 and above, but 125 is higher than about 95% of people.
Can an IQ of 125 get into Mensa?
Not on its own. Mensa accepts the top 2% on an approved, supervised test, which is usually 130 or above. 125 is 5 points below that.
How common is an IQ of 125 or higher?
About 5% of people score 125 or higher, roughly 1 in 21. In a stadium of 50,000 people, about 2,390 would score at this level or above.
Does a 125 IQ protect against dementia?
No score protects anyone. In Scottish data, people who scored lower as children were somewhat more likely to develop dementia in later life, and children scoring 115 or more formed the comparison group with the lowest risk. That is an average pattern across thousands of people. Many people with a 125 IQ still develop dementia, and the studies cannot show that IQ itself is the cause.
What mental age is an IQ of 125?
Under the old ratio formula, a 9-year-old with an IQ of 125 would perform like a typical child of about 11 years 3 months, roughly 27 months ahead. The idea only works for children: an adult who scores 125 simply did better than most adults of the same age on the test.
Is an IQ of 125 very high?
It is high: higher than about 9 in 10 people. Current children's tests label 120 to 129 very high. Most people reserve "very high" or "gifted" for 130 and above.
Can an IQ of 125 change?
A measured score can move a few points between tests because of measurement error and practice, so a result in the 120s on one test may come out higher or lower on another. Large, lasting changes are uncommon in adults, whose scores are usually stable over many years.
Is 125 good for a scientist or engineer?
It is a strong score for demanding technical work, but there is no IQ requirement for any profession. Training, persistence and curiosity matter at least as much.
See where 130 and the other benchmarks sit in what is a good IQ score?, and what higher scores do and don't predict in what IQ is. Average scores by occupation are on our IQ by profession page. Every score range is in the IQ range chart.
An IQ test arrives at a score like 125 by combining several kinds of task. Learn more about fluid vs crystallized intelligence, abstract reasoning, spatial reasoning, verbal reasoning and processing speed, or try the free pattern recognition test.
What would you score?
Take the free Assessivo IQ test: 36 questions, 25 minutes, and your estimated IQ score and percentile as soon as you finish.
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