George BerkeleyPhilosopher
Cox rated him 175 for ages 17 to 26, 1 point below 176. Cox's childhood rating for him was 150.
IQ 176: rarity and Cox's corrections
An IQ of 176 is higher than about 99.999979% of people, roughly 1 in 4,940,195. The bell curve predicts only about 14 people at this level in the whole of the UK. It is also the kind of number that appears when Catharine Cox's historical estimates are "corrected", a step worth understanding before you trust any famous 170-plus.
99.999979thpercentile
1 in 4,940,195score 176 or higher
Exceptionally giftedlevel of giftedness
176IQ scoreTop 0.00002%
176 on the IQ bell curve
At 76 points above the mean of 100 (5.07 standard deviations), 176 sits where the curve has almost flattened onto the axis. Only 0.00002% of people score here or higher; on the left chart that group is the barely visible orange edge.
Beyond 176 the curve holds about two people in every ten million.
Reading an IQ of 176
Cox's raw ratings were based on whatever records survived, and she found that thinner records gave lower estimates. To compensate, she published corrected figures that adjusted each estimate for the reliability of its data. As our famous people guide explains, the correction raised the typical childhood figure from about 135 to 155 and the young-adult figure from about 145 to 165.
That is how Leonardo da Vinci, rated 135 and 150 in the raw data, came to be quoted at 180, and Isaac Newton at 190. Neither figure is a test score, and the correction is a statistical argument about missing evidence, not new evidence about either man.
How many people have an IQ of 176?
How big a group do you need before someone in it is likely to score 176? About 4,940,195 people. Watch the crowd grow to that size.
A crowd of 4,940,195 people
4,940,195
One dot per person, and on average only one of them, shown in orange, scores 176 or more.
People scoring 176 or higher, by population
| Worldwide (8.2 billion people) | about 1,660 |
| India | about 296 |
| United States | about 69 |
| United Kingdom | about 14 |
| Canada | about 8 |
| Australia | about 6 |
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 176?
Entry to a high-IQ society depends on a percentile, which each one turns into a score per accepted test. Measured under supervision, 176 meets every one of these bars.
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MensaTop 2% (98th percentile) on an approved, supervised test130met
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IntertelTop 1% (99th percentile); lists a Wechsler full-scale IQ of 135135met
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Triple Nine Society99.9th percentile; lists a WAIS full-scale IQ of 146146met
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International Society for Philosophical Enquiry99.9th percentile; lists a WAIS-III or WAIS-IV full-scale IQ of 146146met
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Prometheus Society1 in 30,000 (99.997th percentile), four standard deviations above average160met
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Mega SocietyOne in a million, beyond the range of standard tests171met
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 176?
The adult Wechsler test and the Stanford-Binet 5 both stop at 160, so neither can give a 176. To report a score this high, a psychologist needs an extended scale, such as the WISC-V extended norms (to 210) or the Stanford-Binet 5 Extended IQ (to 225), shown in the bars below.
Why so uncertain? Because a test compares you with its norm sample, and the WAIS-IV sample had 2,200 adults. The bell curve expects about 0.00045 of them at 176 or higher. With nobody in the sample anywhere near this level, the number comes from the shape of the curve, not from comparison with real people.
There is measurement error too: a professional report would give a range of about 171 to 181 around a 176. With so few people ever measured at this level, the true uncertainty is larger still. Online results are far rougher, which is why ours stops at 145. Are online IQ tests accurate?
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.
Converting an IQ of 176 between scales
The number attached to a result depends on the scale's standard deviation. Near 176, switching scales can add or remove dozens of points for exactly the same rank.
176standard scale (SD 15), used by Wechsler tests and on this page
181older Stanford-Binet scale (SD 16)
222Cattell scale (SD 24), used by some older and online tests
So a "176" isn't always a 176. On the Cattell scale it corresponds to about 148 on the standard scale; on an SD 16 scale, about 171. Why IQ scales differ.
Who has been rated near an IQ of 176?
Catharine Cox's 1926 study is the source of nearly every historical "IQ". She estimated each person's score from records of their early life, once for childhood and once for ages 17 to 26. None of them sat a test.
Estimate, not a test
Barthold Georg NiebuhrHistorian
Cox rated him 175 for ages 17 to 26, 1 point below 176. Cox's childhood rating for him was 165.
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.
Who is said to have a 176 IQ?
These names are often given an IQ at or close to 176. Not one of the figures is backed by a published test result.
RA
178No evidence of a test
Rowan Atkinson
The figure appears on many lists of celebrity IQs with no traceable source.
Sources for every claim are listed in our celebrity IQ list.
How Cox corrected her estimates, and why
Cox noticed that the more reliable a person's records, the higher her raters' estimate tended to be. She concluded that incomplete records introduced "a constant error affecting all of the scores", and that a correction "would raise all of the scores far above their present positions".
She described her correction as "a crude approximation" that "indicates a point below which the true IQ probably did not fall". Popular lists often quote the corrected figures as if they were measurements, which is how many famous people acquired IQs in the 170s, 180s and 190s.
Sources: Cox, C. M. (1926), Genetic Studies of Genius, Vol. II, Stanford University Press; our famous people IQ guide.
What does an IQ of 176 mean?
A confirmed 176 means a rank of roughly one in five million for your age. Because no adult scale reaches it and childhood ratio scores inflate, a quoted 176 deserves the question every very high number does: which test, at what age, scored which way?
Where 176 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 176 is from other milestones
30 points above the Triple Nine and ISPE bar (146)a score of 176 is about 5,347 times rarer than 146
16 points above the ceiling of most professional tests (160)a score of 176 is about 156 times rarer than 160
5 points above the Mega Society's one-in-a-million level (171)a score of 176 is about 5.5 times rarer than 171
4 points below the start of the profoundly gifted band (180)reaching 180 is about 4 times rarer than 176
5.07 standard deviations above averageaverage is 100 and one standard deviation is 15 points
IQ 176 compared with nearby scores
| IQ | Percentile | Rarity | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 172 | 99.99992nd | 1 in 1,260,512 | Exceptionally gifted |
| 174 | 99.999959th | 1 in 2,474,083 | Exceptionally gifted |
| 176 | 99.999979th | 1 in 4,940,195 | Exceptionally gifted |
| 178 | 99.99999th | 1 in 10,035,701 | Exceptionally gifted |
| 180 | 99.9999951st | 1 in 20,741,280 | Profoundly gifted |
Your questions about a 176 IQ
Is 176 a high IQ?
Yes. 176 is a very high IQ: about 1 person in 4,940,195 scores this high or higher, which puts it at the 99.999979th 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.
What percentile is an IQ of 176?
An IQ of 176 is at about the 99.999979th percentile. Only about 0.00002% of people score 176 or higher.
How rare is an IQ of 176?
About 1 person in 4,940,195 scores 176 or higher, on the standard bell curve. Across the world's population of about 8.2 billion, that would be roughly 1,660 people.
Is an IQ of 176 good?
Yes, by any measure. 176 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 176?
Yes. Mensa accepts the top 2% on an approved, supervised test, which is about 130 on the standard scale. A supervised 176 would also meet the bar for Intertel, Triple Nine Society, International Society for Philosophical Enquiry, Prometheus Society and Mega Society. Online test results are not accepted.
Why are historical geniuses given IQs of 180 or more?
Mostly because of Catharine Cox's 1926 corrections. Her raw estimates, made from records of each person's youth, were adjusted upwards for missing evidence, raising many into the 170s and beyond. They are estimates, not test results.
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.
An IQ test arrives at a score like 176 by combining several kinds of task. Learn more about abstract reasoning, spatial reasoning, verbal reasoning, processing speed and fluid vs crystallized intelligence, or try the free pattern recognition test.
Many famous IQ figures are guesses. See what is really known about Einstein's IQ, Isaac Newton's IQ, Nikola Tesla's IQ, Stephen Hawking's IQ, Bill Gates' IQ, Elon Musk's IQ, Garry Kasparov's IQ and Terence Tao's IQ.
Curious where you'd land?
Try the free Assessivo IQ test: 36 questions, about 25 minutes, and an estimated score up to 145. Confirming a result as high as 176 needs a supervised professional test.
Take the free IQ testPortraits are pencil-style sketches by Assessivo, based on: George Berkeley after John Smibert (about 1727), public domain.