Is 96 a good IQ score?
Yes. An IQ of 96 is in the average range, where about half of all people score. It is a little below the exact middle of 100, but well within normal, and a perfectly good result for school, work and everyday life.
Where 96 sits on the bell curve
An IQ of 96 is 4 points below the average of 100, or 0.27 standard deviations. It is higher than about 39% of people of the same age, shown by the shaded area below. Scores in the 90s sit on the steep, crowded slope just left of the peak, so a few points here change your percentile a lot.
On other IQ scales, the same result would be about 96 on a test with a standard deviation of 16, such as older editions of the Stanford-Binet, and 94 on the Cattell scale, which uses 24. Why scales differ.
IQ 96 meaning: a closer look
At 96, you score higher than roughly 40 in every 100 people. Four points below the middle is a very small gap, about the same as the difference you might see between a morning and an evening attempt. In a class of 30, a 96 would usually rank somewhere around the 18th place, right in the crowded middle of the group. This is a typical score for adults and children alike, because each age group is measured against its own average.
Norway's falling scores and what they say about an IQ of 96
For most of the 20th century, average IQ scores rose by about 3 points per decade. Then, in some countries, the rise stalled or reversed. Norway is one of the best studied cases. Using military conscription tests for the vast majority of Norwegian men born between 1962 and 1991, Bratsberg and Rogeberg (2018) found scores climbing for cohorts born up to 1975, followed by a clear decline. Crucially, the same rise and fall appeared when they compared brothers within the same family, which the authors say rules out explanations based on genes or on which parents had more children.
Brothers share the same parents, so a change between an older and a younger brother points to the environment, although the study does not say which environmental factors were responsible. For someone with a 96, the lesson is that national averages can move by a few points within a generation for reasons that are not genetic. It does not mean any one person's ability is falling, and the trend was measured in Norwegian men at conscription age, not in everyone. A 96 remains a solidly average result.
Sources: Bratsberg and Rogeberg (2018), "Flynn effect and its reversal are both environmentally caused", PNAS, 115(26); Bratsberg and Rogeberg (2019), "Norwegian IQ scores are falling, but genes are not to blame", TheScienceBreaker.
What 96 looks like among real people
If you lined up 100 people of your age, about 39 would score lower than 96 and about 61 would score the same or higher. The orange dot marks your place in the line.
Most of the people you meet every day score within a few points of this.
How precise is a score of 96?
No IQ test measures to the exact point. On a professional test, a result of 96 usually comes with a likely range of about five points either way: 91 to 101. That range runs from the 27th to the 53rd percentile, all within the average range.
In the 90s a few points make a big difference to the percentile, because so many people score here. That is why a gap of a few points between two tests, or two people, usually means very little.
On the Assessivo test, each correct answer is worth about 2.5 points, so 96 falls between two possible results: 95 for 16 correct answers and 98 for 17. How our score is worked out.
So if you scored 96 once, a retest on another day could reasonably land anywhere from 91 to 101. Online tests are less precise still, so treat any online result as a rough estimate.
IQ 96 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 96 would have meant for children of different ages: working a little behind their years.
| Real age | Mental age at IQ 96 |
|---|---|
| 5 | 4 years 10 months |
| 7 | 6 years 9 months |
| 9 | 8 years 8 months |
| 11 | 10 years 7 months |
| 13 | 12 years 6 months |
The same 96 stands for a gap of about 2 months at age 5 but 6 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 96 means for you
It sits near the bottom of the average band, which runs from 90 to 109.
- You reason about as well as most people of your age, with a typical balance of speed and accuracy on new problems.
- Most courses, jobs and everyday decisions sit comfortably within this range of ability.
- Two people at 94 and 104 are closer than the numbers suggest: their likely ranges overlap.
How far 96 is from other levels
How 96 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 86 | 18th | Low average | 82% |
| 91 | 27th | Average | 73% |
| 96 | 39th | Average | 61% |
| 101 | 53rd | Average | 1 in 2 |
| 106 | 66th | Average | 1 in 3 |
Questions about an IQ of 96
What percentile is an IQ of 96?
An IQ of 96 is at about the 39th percentile, which means it is higher than about 39% of people of the same age.
Is 96 a high IQ?
No. 96 is in the average range. High IQ usually refers to scores of 120 or 130 and above.
Can an IQ of 96 get into Mensa?
Not on its own. Mensa accepts the top 2% on an approved, supervised test, which is usually 130 or above. 96 is 34 points below that.
How common is an IQ of 96 or higher?
About 61% of people score 96 or higher, roughly 1 in 2. In a stadium of 50,000 people, about 30,300 would score at this level or above.
Are average IQ scores like 96 falling in younger generations?
In some countries, yes. Norwegian conscription data show scores rising for men born up to 1975 and falling after that. The same trend appeared between brothers in the same family, which points to environmental causes rather than genes. This is a change in group averages over time, not a sign that any individual's score is dropping.
What mental age is an IQ of 96?
Under the old ratio formula, a 9-year-old with an IQ of 96 would perform like a typical child of about 8 years 8 months, roughly 4 months behind. The idea only works for children: an adult who scores 96 simply did less well than most adults of the same age on the test.
Is an IQ of 96 normal?
Yes. 96 is in the average range of 90 to 109, which covers about half of all people. Nothing about it is unusual.
Why is 96 below 100 if it is average?
100 is the exact middle, but "average" is a band, not a single number. Psychologists call the whole range from 90 to 109 average because the differences within it are small and within a test's margin of error.
Is an IQ of 96 good enough for university?
Yes. Universities select on qualifications, not IQ, and people with average scores succeed on degree courses every year. Effort, interest and study habits make a bigger difference.
Our guide to average IQ explains why the middle is always 100, and what counts as a good IQ score puts the 90s in context. National averages, and why they are disputed, are covered in average IQ by country. Every score range is in the IQ range chart.
A full IQ score of 96 combines several skills. Our guides explain each one: abstract reasoning, spatial reasoning, verbal reasoning, processing speed and fluid vs crystallized intelligence, 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.
Take the free IQ test