Thomas Babington MacaulayHistorian and politician
Cox rated him 165 for ages 17 to 26, 2 points above 163. Cox's childhood rating for him was 180.
What does a 163 IQ mean?
A 163 IQ means a score higher than about 99.9986% of people, roughly 1 in 74,930. It falls in the band gifted-education researcher Miraca Gross calls "exceptionally gifted", 160 to 179, which she estimated at between 1 in 10,000 and 1 in a million children.
99.9986thpercentile
1 in 74,930score 163 or higher
Exceptionally giftedlevel of giftedness
163IQ scoreTop 0.0013%
How far out on the bell curve is 163?
Plot 163 on the bell curve and it lands 4.2 standard deviations, or 63 points, to the right of the average. The area beyond it, coloured orange below, holds only 0.0013% of people, too thin to see without zooming in.
Each point this far out makes the score markedly rarer: 163 is about one and a third times as rare as 162.
What makes 163 different
Gross's categories put 163 in the middle of a very wide band. "Exceptionally gifted" covers everything from just past the clinical ceiling to the edge of 180, a range in which rarity changes from about 1 in 30,000 to about 1 in 20 million. Two children both described as exceptionally gifted can therefore be very differently placed.
On the bell curve, around 110,000 people worldwide would be expected at 163 or above, about 4,560 in the United States and 927 in the United Kingdom. Spread across an entire country, that is too few for most schools ever to meet one, which is a large part of Gross's argument that these children are underserved.
How many people have an IQ of 163?
To meet one person scoring 163 or above, you would need, on average, a crowd of 74,930. Here is that crowd, built up step by step.
A crowd of 74,930 people
74,930
Every dot stands for a person. Only the orange one, one in the whole crowd, would be expected to reach 163.
People scoring 163 or higher, by population
| Worldwide (8.2 billion people) | about 110,000 |
| India | about 19,500 |
| United States | about 4,560 |
| United Kingdom | about 927 |
| Canada | about 556 |
| Australia | about 369 |
Population: World Bank, total population, 2025. Counts assume the same bell curve in every country and are rounded. Real tests can't sort people this finely, as the next sections explain.
Which high-IQ societies accept an IQ of 163?
Each society below admits a set top slice of the population and lists the score that matches it on the Wechsler adult scale. With a supervised result of 163, you would meet 5 of the 6 bars; the next, Mega Society, needs about 171.
-
MensaTop 2% (98th percentile) on an approved, supervised test130met
-
IntertelTop 1% (99th percentile); lists a Wechsler full-scale IQ of 135135met
-
Triple Nine Society99.9th percentile; lists a WAIS full-scale IQ of 146146met
-
International Society for Philosophical Enquiry99.9th percentile; lists a WAIS-III or WAIS-IV full-scale IQ of 146146met
-
Prometheus Society1 in 30,000 (99.997th percentile), four standard deviations above average160met
-
Mega SocietyOne in a million, beyond the range of standard tests171not met
Scores for Mensa, Intertel, Triple Nine and ISPE are the Wechsler figures those societies list or that match their percentile. Prometheus and Mega give only a rarity; the scores shown are the matching points on the standard scale. Prometheus says no test currently being given is approved for its entry. Online test results are not accepted by any of them.
Can an IQ test measure 163?
A score of 163 is 3 points past the ceiling of the main clinical tests, which stop at 160. The bars show the highest full-scale result each test can give; only the extended scales, used mainly with exceptionally able children, can report 163.
Behind every score is a norm sample: for the WAIS-IV, 2,200 adults. The bell curve predicts about 0.03 of them at 163 or above, far less than one person, so no standard test has ever compared anyone with real 163 scorers. Extended norms are built from children who reach the ceiling of the standard test, and their scores rest on that projection.
Add the usual margin of error, about five points either way, and a result of 163 really means somewhere near 158 to 168. Very few people have ever been tested this high, so even extended scales are working near the limit of their evidence. No online test can pin down a score like this, ours included. What online tests can and can't tell you.
Sources: WAIS-IV range and norm sample from Canivez (2010), Mental Measurements Yearbook review; Stanford-Binet 5 and its Extended IQ from PRO-ED; WISC-V extended norms from Pearson Technical Report #6 (2019). Striped bars are extended scales, used only when a person hits the normal ceiling.
Is 163 the same on every IQ scale?
IQ tests don't all use the same yardstick. A scale with a larger standard deviation turns the same rank into a bigger number, especially this far above average.
163standard scale (SD 15), used by Wechsler tests and on this page
167older Stanford-Binet scale (SD 16)
201Cattell scale (SD 24), used by some older and online tests
Turn it around: if a test using the Cattell scale reports 163, the standard-scale equivalent is just 139. From an SD 16 test, 163 converts to about 159. Check the scale before comparing any high score. IQ standard deviations explained.
Historical figures rated at about 163
The figures below are not test scores. In 1926 the psychologist Catharine Cox rated 301 eminent people from records of their youth, giving each a childhood estimate and a second one for ages 17 to 26.
Samuel Taylor ColeridgePoet and critic
Cox rated him 165 for ages 17 to 26, 2 points above 163. Cox's childhood rating for him was 175.
Estimate, not a test
François AragoPhysicist and astronomer
Cox rated him 165 for ages 17 to 26, 2 points above 163. Cox's childhood rating for him was 145.
Source: Cox, C. M. (1926), Genetic Studies of Genius, Vol. II: The Early Mental Traits of Three Hundred Geniuses, Stanford University Press. Cox stressed that thin records pull estimates down. Read more in where the historical genius IQ estimates came from.
Why the very gifted are hard to find
In her 2000 article on exceptionally and profoundly gifted students, Gross set out five levels: mildly (115 to 129), moderately (130 to 144), highly (145 to 159), exceptionally (160 to 179) and profoundly gifted (180 and above), with prevalence for the exceptionally gifted of 1 in 10,000 to 1 in a million.
She also noted that several researchers, from Lewis Terman in 1925 onwards, have proposed that the number of children scoring in the extremely high ranges "exceeds the theoretical expectations derived from the normal curve". Whether that reflects real excess or the way older tests calculated scores is still debated.
Source: Gross, M. U. M. (2000), "Exceptionally and Profoundly Gifted Students: An Underserved Population", Understanding Our Gifted.
What does an IQ of 163 mean?
A 163 means a test placed your reasoning far beyond the usual definitions of gifted, in the top 0.0014% of your age group. Gross's work suggests that children at this level often need educational provision quite different from standard gifted programmes, which are typically designed for scores of 130 and up.
Where 163 falls among the levels of giftedness
115–129Mildly gifted
130–144Moderately gifted
145–159Highly gifted
160–179Exceptionally gifted
180+Profoundly gifted
Levels and ranges from Gross, M. U. M. (2000), "Exceptionally and Profoundly Gifted Students: An Underserved Population", Understanding Our Gifted. They are a guide for education, not a ranking of people.
How far 163 is from other milestones
17 points above the Triple Nine and ISPE bar (146)a score of 163 is about 81 times rarer than 146
3 points above the ceiling of most professional tests (160)a score of 163 is about 2.4 times rarer than 160
8 points below the Mega Society's one-in-a-million level (171)reaching 171 is about 12 times rarer than 163
17 points below the start of the profoundly gifted band (180)reaching 180 is about 277 times rarer than 163
4.2 standard deviations above averageaverage is 100 and one standard deviation is 15 points
IQ 163 compared with nearby scores
| IQ | Percentile | Rarity | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 159 | 99.9958th | 1 in 23,873 | Highly gifted |
| 161 | 99.9976th | 1 in 41,937 | Exceptionally gifted |
| 163 | 99.9986th | 1 in 74,930 | Exceptionally gifted |
| 165 | 99.99926th | 1 in 136,176 | Exceptionally gifted |
| 167 | 99.9996th | 1 in 251,738 | Exceptionally gifted |
163 IQ: common questions
Is 163 a high IQ?
Yes. 163 is a very high IQ: about 1 person in 74,930 scores this high or higher, which puts it at the 99.9986th percentile. It is above the 130 that most definitions use for a high IQ, and at or above the 146 used by the Triple Nine Society for its 99.9th percentile entry.
How rare is an IQ of 163?
About 1 person in 74,930 scores 163 or higher, on the standard bell curve. Across the world's population of about 8.2 billion, that would be roughly 110,000 people.
Is an IQ of 163 good?
Yes, by any measure. 163 is higher than about 100% of people. Remember that a score this high needs a supervised professional test to be confirmed, and that it describes reasoning on a test, not every kind of talent.
Can you join Mensa with an IQ of 163?
Yes. Mensa accepts the top 2% on an approved, supervised test, which is about 130 on the standard scale. A supervised 163 would also meet the bar for Intertel, Triple Nine Society, International Society for Philosophical Enquiry and Prometheus Society. Online test results are not accepted.
What does 163 IQ mean?
It means a result 63 points, or 4.2 standard deviations, above the average for your age. On the levels used by gifted education researchers, 163 is exceptionally gifted (160–179).
Is 163 IQ exceptionally gifted?
Yes. In Miraca Gross's widely used levels, 160 to 179 is "exceptionally gifted", and 163 is near the start of that band. She estimated its prevalence at between 1 in 10,000 and 1 in a million children.
Related: what counts as a good IQ score, the highest IQ in the world, famous people's IQs and the full IQ scale and range chart.
Behind a single score of 163 sit several separate abilities. Read about verbal reasoning, processing speed, fluid vs crystallized intelligence, abstract reasoning and spatial reasoning, or try the free pattern recognition test.
Curious which celebrity IQs near 163 hold up? Read the full stories of Stephen Hawking's IQ, Bill Gates' IQ, Elon Musk's IQ, Garry Kasparov's IQ, Terence Tao's IQ, Einstein's IQ, Isaac Newton's IQ and Nikola Tesla's IQ.
Curious where you'd land?
Our free test takes about 25 minutes and gives an estimated IQ with its percentile. Results go up to 145, so a score like 163 can only be confirmed by a psychologist.
Take the free IQ testPortraits are pencil-style sketches by Assessivo, based on: Thomas Babington Macaulay after Sir Francis Grant, public domain. Samuel Taylor Coleridge after Washington Allston (1814), public domain.