30 Smartest People Alive Today (2023)

History is peppered with influential geniuses who changed the world. Individuals like Socrates, Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein all had groundbreaking ideas that have lived on long after their deaths. Following this fine tradition, we take a look at 30 of the smartest people alive today – including brilliantly accomplished academics, former child prodigies, IQ whizzes, and super sharp young intellectuals with their whole lives ahead of them.

30. Paul Allen

Billionaire Paul Allen reportedly has an IQ of between 160 and 170. Allen was born in 1953 in Seattle and made friends with Bill Gates while still at school. He attended Washington State University but quit his studies in 1974 and then talked Gates into leaving Harvard. The following year, the pair founded Microsoft in New Mexico. After he was told that he had Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1982, Allen stepped back from Microsoft and eventually resigned in 2000, although he remained in an advisory capacity. He is a renowned philanthropist, and his donations to science, education, conservation, the arts and technology exceed $1.5 billion. As well as being a stakeholder in technology, media and other companies, Allen owns the Seattle Seahawks and the Portland Trailblazers and part-owns MLS team the Seattle Sounders. He launched the Allen Institute for Brain Science in 2003 and founded space transport company Stratolaunch Systems in 2011.

29. Christopher Langan

Born in San Francisco in 1952, self-educated Christopher Langan is a special kind of genius. By the time he turned four, he’d already taught himself how to read. At high school, according to Langan, he tutored himself in “advanced math, physics, philosophy, Latin and Greek, all that.” What’s more, he allegedly got 100 percent on his SAT test, even though he slept through some of it. Langan attended Montana State University but dropped out. Rather like the titular character in 1997 movie Good Will Hunting, Langan didn’t choose an academic career; instead, he worked as a doorman and developed his Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe during his downtime. In 1999, on TV newsmagazine 20/20, neuropsychologist Robert Novelly stated that Langan’s IQ – said to be between 195 and 210 – was the highest he’d ever measured. Langan has been dubbed “the smartest man in America.”

28. Judit Polgár

Born in Budapest, Hungary in 1976, Judit Polgár is acknowledged as without doubt the best female chess player in history. Polgár was a chess-playing child prodigy and overcame her first grandmaster when she was just 11. At present, she is the only woman in the World Chess Federation’s Top 100 Players. She has also beaten nine world champions, including Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov. In 1991, aged 15 and five months, Polgár won the Hungarian National Championship and became the then youngest grandmaster – eclipsing Bobby Fischer’s longstanding record by one month. Apparently, the way in which Polgár’s father raised her and her sisters was part of an experiment to prove that “geniuses are made, not born.” And considering Polgár’s reported IQ of 170 and significant accomplishments, perhaps he was on to something.

27. Marilyn vos Savant

Marilyn vos Savant was born in 1946 in Missouri. In 1986 the columnist and author made history when she was named in The Guinness Book of World Records as the person possessing the highest IQ, with a reported score of 228. She is said to have achieved the score on the Stanford-Binet test at the age of ten. In the mid 1980s, Savant also took the controversial Mega Test, scoring an IQ of 186. In the wake of her newfound fame, Parade magazine launched the popular “Ask Marilyn” column, which still runs today. Savant has been a member of elite “one-in-a-million” IQ society the Mega Society. And in 1989 New York magazine called her and husband Robert Jarvik – who designed the first successful artificial heart – “the smartest couple in New York.”

26. John H. Sununu

With a reported IQ of 180, John H. Sununu is another individual who has proved equal to the eligibility criteria for acceptance into the Mega Society high IQ club. Born in 1939 in Havana, Cuba, Sununu studied mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, achieving his bachelor’s degree in 1961, his master’s in 1963 and his Ph.D. in 1966. After he graduated, Sununu worked as a professor at Massachusetts-based Tufts University until 1968, when he was appointed the school’s associate dean of engineering, a position he held until 1973. Between 1983 and 1989 Sununu served as the governor of New Hampshire; then in 1989 he became the White House Chief of Staff. However, in 1991 Sununu stepped down following allegations that he had abused his government travel privileges.

25. Neil deGrasse Tyson

Neil deGrasse Tyson is a high-profile American astrophysicist and research associate at the American Museum of Natural History, and he is also Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City. Tyson was born in New York in 1958 and loved astronomy from a young age. In 1980 he graduated from Harvard with a bachelor’s degree in physics, and he went on to earn his master’s in astronomy from the University of Texas in 1983. He then went to Columbia, where he obtained his M.Phil. in astrophysics in 1989 and his Ph.D. two years later. Tyson achieved pop culture fame presenting educational PBS show NOVA ScienceNow from 2006 to 2011, and he has made numerous TV guest appearances. The awards he has received include a NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, and in 2001 Asteroid 1994KA was renamed 13123 Tyson in his honor.

24. Kim Ung-Yong

Before The Guinness Book of World Records withdrew its Highest IQ category in 1990, South Korean former child prodigy Kim Ung-Yong made the list with a score of 210. Kim was born in Seoul in 1963, and by the time he turned three, he could already read Korean, Japanese, English and German. When he was just eight years old, Kim moved to America to work at NASA. “At that time, I led my life like a machine. I woke up, solved the daily assigned equation, ate, slept, and so forth,” he has explained. “I was lonely and had no friends.” While he was in the States, Kim allegedly obtained a doctorate degree in physics, although this is unconfirmed. In any case, in 1978 he moved back to South Korea and went on to earn a Ph.D. in civil engineering.

23. Mislav Predavec

Mislav Predavec is a Croatian mathematics professor with a reported IQ of 190. “I always felt I was a step ahead of others. As material in school increased, I justsolved the problems faster and better,” he has explained. Predavec was born in Zagreb in 1967, and his unique abilities were obvious from a young age. As for his adult achievements, since 2009 Predavec has taught at Zagreb’s Schola Medica Zagrabiensis. In addition, he runs trading company Preminis, having done so since 1989. And in 2002 Predavec founded exclusive IQ society GenerIQ, which forms part of his wider IQ society network. “Very difficult intelligence tests are my favorite hobby,” he has said. In 2012 the World Genius Directory ranked Predavec as the third smartest person in the world.

22. Manahel Thabet

In 2008, aged 25, Yemeni economist and scientist Manahel Thabet became the youngest person to receive a financial engineering Ph.D. magna cum laude. Thabet earned the degree at the University of Illinois and has since worked towards a second Ph.D. in quantum mathematics. In 2012 she came up with a revolutionary 350-page formula to calculate distance in space without the use of light. She also has an IQ higher than 168 and garnered a Genius of the Year Award and a spot on the 2013 World Genius Directory’s list. Thabet set up the company Smart Tips Consultants in 2008. Her accolades include a humanitarian award for her efforts with the United Nations and a Woman of the Year Award from the Women’s Federation for World Peace.

21. Richard Rosner

U.S. television writer and pseudo-celebrity Richard Rosner is an unusual case. Born in 1960, he has led a somewhat checkered professional life: as well writing for Jimmy Kimmel Live! and other TV shows, Rosner has, he says, been employed as a stripper, doorman, male model and waiter. In 2000 he infamously appeared on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, answering a question about the altitude of capital cities incorrectly and reacting by suing the show, albeit unsuccessfully. Rosner placed second in the World Genius Directory’s 2013 Genius of the Year Awards; the site lists his IQ at 192, which places him just behind Greek psychiatrist Evangelos Katsioulis. Rosner reportedly hit the books for 20 hours a day to try and outdo Katsioulis, but to no avail.

20. Chris Hirata

Astrophysicist Chris Hirata was born in Michigan in 1982, and at the age of 13 he became the youngest U.S. citizen to receive an International Physics Olympiad gold medal. When he turned 14, Hirata apparently began studying at the California Institute of Technology, and he would go on to earn a bachelor’s degree in physics from the school in 2001. At 16 – with a reported IQ of 225 – he started doing work for NASA, investigating whether it would be feasible for humans to settle on Mars. Then in 2005 he went on to obtain a Ph.D. in physics from Princeton. Hirata is currently a physics and astronomy professor at The Ohio State University. His specialist fields include dark energy, gravitational lensing, the cosmic microwave background, galaxy clustering, and general relativity. “If I were to say Chris Hirata is one in a million, that would understate his intellectual ability,” said a member of staff at his high school in 1997.

19. Steven Pinker

Canadian visual cognition and psycholinguistics expert Steven Pinker was born in Montreal in 1954. His work covers popular science, experimental psychology, linguistics and cognitive science, and he is currently a professor of psychology at Harvard. Prior to taking up this position, between 1982 and 2003 he was a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor within the school’s brain and cognitive science department. During his MIT tenure, Pinker took over as the director of the university’s cognitive neuroscience center. In 2004 TIME magazine featured him on its list of the 100 most influential thinkers and scientists. His awards include a Troland Research Award from the National Academy of Sciences and a Royal Institution Henry Dale Prize. Perhaps Pinker’s best-known work is his 2002 book The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature.

18. Ivan Ivec

Born in 1976, Ivan Ivec is a Croatian mathematician and IQ test specialist with – according to the World Genius Directory – an IQ of 174. He holds a Ph.D. in mathematics and works at Gimnazija A.G.Matoša High School in Samobor, Zagreb. Ivec’s website is dedicated to IQ testing and results, and his own tests cover IQ ranges of between 120 and 190. He has also worked with fellow Croatian mathematician Mislav Predavec to design such tests. Interestingly, Ivec says that the time restrictions on intelligence tests devised by psychologists are not ideal for everybody. “Specifically, there are intelligent people, capable of performingcomplex actions and resolving complex tasks, although their speed of solving islow,” he has explained.

17. Garry Kasparov

Born in 1963 in Baku, in what is now Azerbaijan, Garry Kasparov is arguably the most famous chess player of all time. When he was seven, Kasparov enrolled at Baku’s Young Pioneer Palace; then at ten he started to train at the school of legendary Soviet chess player Mikhail Botvinnik. In 1980 Kasparov qualified as a grandmaster, and five years later he became the then youngest-ever outright world champion. He retained the championship title until 1993, and has held the position of world number one-ranked player for three times longer than anyone else. In 1996 he famously took on IBM computer Deep Blue, winning with a score of 4–2 – although he lost to a much upgraded version of the machine the following year. In 2005 Kasparov retired from chess to focus on politics and writing. He has a reported IQ of 190.

16. Terence Tao

Born in Adelaide in 1975, Australian former child prodigy Terence Tao didn’t waste any time flexing his educational muscles. When he was two years old, he was able to perform simple arithmetic. By the time he was nine, he was studying college-level math courses. And in 1988, aged just 13, he became the youngest gold medal recipient in International Mathematical Olympiad history – a record that still stands today. In 1992 Tao achieved a master’s degree in mathematics from Flinders University in Adelaide, the institution from which he’d attained his B.Sc. the year before. Then in 1996, aged 20, he earned a Ph.D. from Princeton, turning in a thesis entitled “Three Regularity Results in Harmonic Analysis.” Tao’s long list of awards includes a 2006 Fields Medal, and he is currently a mathematics professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

15. Scott Aaronson

Scott Aaronson is an associate professor in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s electrical engineering and computer science faculty. According to his website, his research focuses on “the capabilities and limits of quantum computers, and computational complexity theory more generally.” Aaronson was born in Philadelphia in 1981. In 2000 he earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Cornell, and four years later he achieved a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Then in 2012 he was given the Alan T. Waterman Award for “illuminating the fundamental limits on what can be computed in the physical world” and breaking “important new ground in computational theory.” He is known for his key contributions to algebrization and the abstract quantum Turing machine.

14. Nikola Poljak

According to the World Genius Directory, Croatian researcher and physicist Nikola Poljak has an IQ of 183. Born in 1982, Poljak is at present an assistant research fellow and instructor in the University of Zagreb’s physics department. In addition, he is an assistant research fellow at CERN, working on the collaborative A Large Ion Collider Experiment in Geneva, Switzerland. And he is also an assistant research fellow with the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, involved in the STAR detector experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. In 2010 Poljak received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Zagreb. He has carried out scientific assignments for the Croatian Ministry of Science and the Agency for Mobility and EU Programmes, and his current projects include the “exploration of hadronic systems with relativistic probes.”

13. Alan Guth

Born in New Brunswick, New Jersey in 1947, American physicist and cosmologist Alan Guth was smart enough to leave school a year early and go straight to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in physics. Guth initially began evolving his notion of cosmic inflation when he was a junior scientist at Cornell in 1979. Then in 1981 he officially put forward the theory, which is now widely accepted by many scientists. The theory suggests a time prior to the Big Bang during which the universe was able to evenly disperse itself thanks to its smaller size. This model also looks to explain more clearly the conditions that brought about the incredibly fast, exponential growth of the universe. Guth has been described as “the man who put the ‘big’ in ‘Big Bang.’” He has held positions at Princeton, Columbia, Cornell and Stanford, and he’s currently a physics professor at MIT.

12. Donald Knuth

Born in Milwaukee in 1938, Donald Knuth is a groundbreaking computer scientist and mathematician perhaps most renowned for his multi-volume tome The Art of Computer Programming. In recognition of his pioneering work, he has been referred to as the “father” of algorithmic analysis. Knuth is also well known for his popular 1978 open software typesetting system TeX, which is one of the world’s most intricate typographical frameworks. In 1971 Knuth won the inaugural Grace Murray Hopper Award, and his other honors include the A.M. Turing Award and a National Medal of Science. Knuth obtained his Ph.D. in mathematics in 1963 from CalTech, and he is currently a professor emeritus at Stanford.

11. Noam Chomsky

Philosopher, cognitive scientist and political observer Noam Chomsky has been called the “father of modern linguistics,” and his revolutionary work has had an impact on everything from artificial intelligence to music theory. Born in Philadelphia in 1928, Chomsky enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania in 1945, at the age of 16. There, he achieved his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in linguistics, leaving in 1955 to take up a post teaching philosophy and linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – where he presently holds the position of professor emeritus. A revered cultural icon, Chomsky is still politically active, especially when it comes to issues of American foreign policy, state capitalism and mass media news. He has written in excess of 100 books and was named the “world’s top public intellectual” in a poll conducted in 2005.

10. Evangelos Katsioulis

Greek doctor Evangelos Katsioulis made headlines in his home country when he won the World Genius Directory’s 2013 Genius of the Year Awards. According to the site, Katsioulis’ IQ is a remarkable 198. He apparently scored 205 on the Stanford-Binet scale with a standard deviation of 16, which is on par with 258 on the Cattell scale with a standard deviation of 24 and 198 on the Wechsler scale with a standard deviation of 15. Born in Ioannina in 1976, Katsioulis studied at Greece’s Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, earning an M.Sc. in medical research and technology, a master’s degree in philosophy, and a Ph.D. in psychopharmacology. In 2001 he formed the World Intelligence Network IQ society. He is currently a member of 28 IQ societies, including the exclusive Giga Society. Only 1 in 30 billion people will match his intelligence levels.

9. Magnus Carlsen

Born in Tønsberg, Norway in 1990, Magnus Carlsen is the current World Chess Champion. He qualified as a grandmaster in 2004 when he was just 13. In 2009 chess icon Garry Kasparov began personally training him, but the following year it was reported that they were no longer working together. In 2010, scarcely a month after his 19th birthday, Carlsen became the world’s youngest ever number one-ranked player. And at the 2013 World Chess Championship, he defeated Indian grandmaster Viswanathan Anand and took the title of world champion. After the victory, The Times of India called Carlsen “a genius who’ll only get better.” So far, he has won four Chess Oscars – seven less than Kasparov. Carlsen has also done modelling work for G-Star Raw, and the media has dubbed him “the Justin Bieber of chess.”

8. Shahriar Afshar

Born in 1971, Iranian American physicist and entrepreneur Shahriar Afshar has won a number of awards for his groundbreaking inventions. Afshar is known for his 2004 Afshar experiment, which he conducted at Harvard University. The optical experiment investigates – and, according to Afshar, contradicts – the quantum mechanical principle of complementarity. Afshar served as an associate at Harvard between 2003 and 2004 and was a visiting scientist at Canada’s Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in 2006. He is a visiting research professor of physics at New Jersey’s Rowan University as well as the president, CTO and CEO of consumer electronics startup Immerz. One of his notable inventions is the award-winning “4D” Soundkix mini speaker. In 1989 Afshar won a prestigious Iranian Khwarizmi International Award.

7. Akshay Venkatesh

Born in India in 1981, Akshay Venkatesh is a mathematician and former child prodigy. He was brought up in Australia and showed promise from a young age, earning a bronze medal at the International Physics Olympiad in 1993, when he was just 11. A year later he achieved another bronze medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad. In 1997 Venkatesh gained a first class honors degree in pure mathematics from the University of Western Australia, having been the youngest person to ever study at the university. He then went on to obtain his Ph.D. from Princeton in 2002, at the age of 20. The math whiz has held positions at the Clay Mathematics Institute in Rhode Island and at New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. He currently works as a professor in Stanford University’s mathematics faculty.

6. Saul Kripke

Born in Long Island, New York in 1940, Saul Kripke is an award-winning logician and philosopher noted for the jointly developed Kripke-Platek set theory, his causal theory of reference and his “Kripkenstein” theory. He was a child prodigy, too, having apparently learned Ancient Hebrew on his own by the time he was six before quickly grasping complex mathematics and philosophical questions. In 1980 Kripke published his hugely significant book Naming and Necessity, which discusses proper nouns within the context of the philosophy of language. Kripke has also had a significant bearing on areas surrounding mathematical logic, the philosophy of mathematics, metaphysics and epistemology. In 2001 he was awarded the esteemed Rolf Schock Prize. Furthermore, according to a 2009 poll, in which votes were cast by philosophers, Kripke ranked as the seventh most important philosopher of the past two centuries. He has taught at Harvard, New York’s Rockefeller University, and Princeton – where he is currently a professor emeritus. In addition, he is a distinguished professor of philosophy at the City University of New York.

5. Ruth Lawrence

Born in 1971, British mathematician and former child prodigy Ruth Lawrence made many headlines in 1985 when, aged just 13, she obtained a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Oxford University, gaining a starred first. Another degree, this time in physics, followed in 1986, and in 1989 she received her D.Phil. in mathematics, again from Oxford. In 1990 she was made a junior fellow at Harvard. And after a stint at the University of Michigan, she took on an associate professorship there in 1997. Lawrence is currently an associate professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Einstein Institute of Mathematics and investigates algebraic topology and knot theory. In 1997 Charles Arthur wrote in The Independent, “The branch of mathematics she is now researching… is so advanced, so abstruse, so mind-bogglingly complicated for the non-mathematician that it will be years before technology and science advance enough to make any practical use of it.”

4. Grigori Perelman

Born in 1966, Grigori Perelman is a highly influential, if somewhat eccentric, Russian mathematician. In 2002 he famously cracked the Poincaré conjecture, one of topology’s most weighty and complicated problems. However, the following year he reportedly quit mathematics to live with his mother in very modest circumstances in Saint Petersburg. In 2006 Perelman was honored with the esteemed Fields Medal for his work in furthering the understanding of geometry and particularly the Ricci flow, but he did not accept the award. “I’m not interested in money or fame; I don’t want to be on display like an animal in a zoo,” he explained. In 2010 he was offered the Clay Millennium Prize and one million dollars for his solving of the Poincaré conjecture, but again he declined. “I know how to control the universe. Why would I run to get a million, tell me?” he said.

3. Andrew Wiles

Andrew Wiles was born in Cambridge in 1953. He is an award-winning English mathematician perhaps best known for officially proving Fermat’s Last Theorem in 1995. Before he cracked it, The Guinness Book of World Records listed the 358-year-old theorem as one of the world’s “most difficult mathematical problems.” Wiles attained a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Oxford in 1974, followed by a Ph.D. from Cambridge in 1980. He has worked as a professor at Princeton and Harvard, and in 1985 he received a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship, which allowed him to spend time at Paris’ École Normale Supérieure and the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifique. The mathematician currently holds a Royal Society research professorship at Oxford, and his extensive list of awards includes an International Mathematic Union silver plaque, The Shaw Prize, and a National Academy of Sciences Award in Mathematics.

2. Edward Witten

Edward Witten is a scientist recognized for his research contributions to string theory, M-theory, quantum gravity and supersymmetry. Born in Baltimore in 1951, Witten was originally a history major at Massachusetts’ Brandeis University, attaining his bachelor’s degree in 1971. Five years later he obtained a Ph.D. in physics from Princeton after first earning a master’s degree from the same school. Witten has been described as “the most brilliant physicist of his generation” and “the world’s greatest living theoretical physicist.” In 2004 TIME magazine included him on its annual rundown of the 100 most influential people in the world. Although he is a physicist, Witten has had a major effect on mathematics, and he has a slew of awards to his name, including the Fields Medal, the Dirac Prize, the Albert Einstein Medal and the Nemmers Prize in Mathematics. He is currently a professor at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study.

1. Stephen Hawking

Guest appearances on TV shows such as The Simpsons, Futurama and Star Trek: The Next Generation have helped cement English astrophysicist Stephen Hawking’s place in the pop cultural domain. Hawking was born in 1942; and in 1959, when he was 17 years old, he received a scholarship to read physics and chemistry at Oxford University. He earned a bachelor’s degree in 1962 and then moved on to Cambridge to study cosmology. Diagnosed with motor neurone disease at the age of 21, Hawking became depressed and almost gave up on his studies. However, inspired by his relationship with his fiancé – and soon to be first wife – Jane Wilde, he returned to his academic pursuits and obtained his Ph.D. in 1965. Hawking is perhaps best known for his pioneering theories on black holes and his bestselling 1988 book A Brief History of Time.

FAQs

30 Smartest People Alive Today? ›

Smartest Person in the World in 2023: Smartest Person Alive with highest IQ. Marilyn Vos Savant may well be the smartest person alive today. With an IQ of 228, she holds the highest IQ in the world by the Guinness World Records since 1990.

Who has the highest IQ alive today? ›

Smartest Person in the World in 2023: Smartest Person Alive with highest IQ. Marilyn Vos Savant may well be the smartest person alive today. With an IQ of 228, she holds the highest IQ in the world by the Guinness World Records since 1990.

Who had an IQ of 400? ›

Marilyn vos Savant (/ˌvɒs səˈvɑːnt/; born Marilyn Mach; August 11, 1946) is an American magazine columnist who has the highest recorded intelligence quotient (IQ) in the Guinness Book of Records, a competitive category the publication has since retired.
...
Marilyn vos Savant
SpouseRobert Jarvik ​ ( m. 1987)​
Children2
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Who is the number 1 smartest person? ›

Isaac Newton — a mathematician, physicist, inventor, economist, and theologian — was the smartest person ever to have lived. His unparalleled brilliance, however, came at a very steep cost.

What is IQ of Bill Gates? ›

The average IQ varies from country to country, with the US standing at 98. Anything above 130 is high. Here are some of the glimpses of genius that attest to Bill Gates' high IQ, even to the point of being a 160 score.

How smart is Elon Musk IQ? ›

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) When did Elon Musk take an IQ test? The Tesla CEO is estimated to have an IQ score of around 155.

Does Ashton Kutcher have a high IQ? ›

Ashton Kutcher

But little do fans of That '70s Show and Dude, Where's My Car know that Kutcher bears no similarities to some of his former on-screen characters. The-now 44-year-old has an estimated IQ of 160, evident in his humanitarian work (he's assisted with the plight of child trafficking) and investment work.

What is Mr Bean's IQ? ›

Rowan Atkinson

Bean as 'a child in a grown man's body. ' But Atkinson himself actually is a genius. For real. He has an IQ of 178, which is unthinkably high.

What happens if you have 200 IQ? ›

Furthermore, IQs of 200 would allow us to pursue activities and careers that most interest us, not just those we're mentally capable of, Haier said. We could master new languages in a few weeks, for example, or become brain surgeons.

What was Da Vinci's IQ? ›

Da Vinci, famed painter and theorist, is estimated to have had IQ scores ranging from 180 to 220, according to parade.com.

Who is the smartest guy of all time? ›

To those who knew of his son, William James Sidis was quite possibly the smartest man who ever lived. Born in Boston in 1898, William James Sidis made the headlines in the early 20th century as a child prodigy with an amazing intellect. His IQ was estimated to be 50 to 100 points higher than Albert Einstein's.

What was Tesla's IQ? ›

Nikola Tesla never had an IQ test, so any reports of his IQ are estimated. These estimates range from 160 to 300. Since his actual IQ can never be known, it is enough to say that he was a brilliant man who was able to learn eight languages and virtually memorize entire books after reading them one time.

Who has lowest IQ in the world? ›

The countries with the highest average IQs are Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the People's Republic of China, all with average IQs above 104. On the other hand, countries such as Mozambique, Burkina Faso, Niger, Antigua and Barbuda, and Rwanda have the lowest average IQs, all below 71.

What ethnicity has the highest IQ scores? ›

In the US, individuals identifying themselves as Asian generally tend to score higher on IQ tests than Caucasians, who tend to score higher than Hispanics, who tend to score higher than African Americans.

What month are most genius people born in? ›

Those born in September are, apparently, the smartest out of the entire year. According to Marie Claire, a study published in the National Bureau of Economic Research found that there's a clear correlation between the month during which you were born and how smart you are.

What is Kanye's IQ? ›

Kanye says he scored a 133 on Mensa IQ test, compares his brain to women's bodies.

What is Steve Jobs IQ? ›

"Steve Jobs likely had an IQ roughly 160 or above. In Walter Isaacson's biography, near the end of 4th grade, Jobs was tested. Jobs said: 'I scored at the high school sophomore level. ' This means he was a 4th grader performing at the 10th grade level.

What is Mark Zuckerberg IQ? ›

Based on Zuckerberg's life history and abilities, we can say that he is at least in the top 1% in both IQ and EQ. We predict that his IQ will be around 145. Don't forget to find out your IQ now with our free test in 10 minutes.

Is Snoop Dogg's IQ really 147? ›

Conversation. : FACTS: According to IMDB, Snoop Dogg's IQ score is 147, which is considered to be extremely high and that of a gifted genius.

What is Taylor Swift's IQ? ›

Taylor Alison Swift is an American singer songwriter. According to some acclaimed websites, she is said to have an IQ of 160. As a matter of fact, she is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the youngest singer ever to sign at age 11.

What is normal person IQ? ›

Most people have an average IQ between 85 and 115. Overall, about 98% of people have a score below 130. Only 2% of the population score above that and are considered above average.

What is Brad Pitt's IQ? ›

What IQ Did These Famous People Have?
NameOccupationIQ
Albert EinsteinPhysicist160
Brad PittHollywood actor126
Abraham LincolnPolitician148
Andy WarholArtist86
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What is Johnny Depp's IQ score? ›

According to Wrap, Johnny Depp received an 88 Q score in 2015.

Is Sylvester Stallone intelligent? ›

Not the first person you would associate with the word genius, Sylvester Stallone is considered one of the smartest guys in Hollywood and, like his equally brawny mate Dolph, has a Mensa IQ score of 160.

What was Isaac Einstein IQ? ›

His performance beats those of physicists Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein, who were both estimated to have IQs around 160.

What is the IQ of Isaac Newton? ›

Isaac Newton

Most famous for his law of gravitation, English physicist and mathematician Sir Isaac Newton was instrumental in the scientific revolution of the 17th century. His estimated IQ scores range from 190 to 200 by different measures.

How do I know my IQ? ›

One of the most well-known online exams available to you is Free-IQTest.net. It has 20 questions that will measure your IQ score accurately. After this test, you have to give your birth date since the test calculates your IQ score based on your age. This way, you may compare yourself to your peers.

What was Dahmer's IQ? ›

Jeffrey Dahmer - 145

But he was also, according to his IQ tests, damned clever too.

Who was the smartest president of the United States? ›

  • Woodrow Wilson. Woodrow Wilson. ...
  • Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter Wikimedia Commons. ...
  • James Madison. James Madison Wikimedia Commons. ...
  • Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton Getty. ...
  • John F. Kennedy. ...
  • Thomas Jefferson. Wikipedia. ...
  • John Adams. John Adams Wikimedia Commons. ...
  • See even more geniuses ... AP Photo. The 40 smartest people of all time.
Mar 30, 2015

What is the average IQ in the United States? ›

What's The Average IQ In The U.S.? According to 2019's The Intelligence of the Nations report, the average IQ in the United States is 97.43, which was calculated using multiple versions of IQ tests as well as detailed sample data regarding socioeconomic and environmental factors.

How rare are geniuses? ›

That's about one in every 250 people. But one leading researcher in the 1940s suggested that a genius should have an IQ over 180. That's about one in every 2 million people. There is no one definition of genius.

Who is the top 5 smartest people ever? ›

The top five are: Johann Goethe, Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Issac Newton, and James Maxwell. The list shows the smartest man of all time is Johann Goethe.

Who has an IQ of 300? ›

William James Sidis has the World's Highest IQ. Anywhere from 250 to 300 is his IQ score, almost twice the score of Albert Einstein. At the age of eleven, William famously entered Harvard University, becoming the youngest person to enter.

What is Einstein's IQ? ›

His performance beats those of physicists Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein, who were both estimated to have IQs around 160.

What is the IQ of Stephen Hawkings? ›

Professor Hawking, the theoretical physicist known for his work on black holes, is said to have had an IQ of 160.

What was the IQ of Nikola Tesla? ›

Nikola Tesla: IQ 160–310

Nikola Tesla, the Serbian-American inventor—and arch-rival of Thomas Edison—reportedly had an estimated IQ falling somewhere between 160 and 310, depending on the measure.

What is average human IQ? ›

In general, an IQ score is defined with a median and mean of 100. Scores above 130 are labeled as above average or “very superior,” while scores under 70 would be considered below average or labeled as “borderline impaired.” Most people have an average IQ between 85 and 115.

What is the IQ of Leonardo da Vinci? ›

Da Vinci, famed painter and theorist, is estimated to have had IQ scores ranging from 180 to 220, according to parade.com.

What is Al Capone's IQ? ›

How did Capone rise to such heights? Eig doesn't credit the gangster's smarts -- Capone "was of average intelligence," with an IQ of 95.

What is the average IQ of a 13 year old? ›

IQ Test Averages for Kids
Age of ChildAverage IQ
13 years oldBetween 40 and 65
14 years oldBetween 60 and 80
15 years oldBetween 70 and 90
16 years oldBetween 70 and 90
14 more rows

How to check my IQ? ›

The IQ score can be calculated with the formula of IQ = (intelligence age/actual age) x100. Here is a short list of the most common IQ tests (intelligence quotient test), other than MentalUP's online IQ test that you or your children may want to take: Stanford-Binet (SB-V) Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-IV)

What is the IQ of Mark Zuckerberg? ›

Based on Zuckerberg's life history and abilities, we can say that he is at least in the top 1% in both IQ and EQ. We predict that his IQ will be around 145. Don't forget to find out your IQ now with our free test in 10 minutes.

What nationality has the highest IQ? ›

The countries with the highest average IQs are Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the People's Republic of China, all with average IQs above 104. On the other hand, countries such as Mozambique, Burkina Faso, Niger, Antigua and Barbuda, and Rwanda have the lowest average IQs, all below 71.

What is the lowest IQ ever recorded? ›

What Is the Lowest IQ Ever? There's no record of the lowest IQ ever. However, the lowest IQ score possible is zero.

Who is considered the smartest person ever? ›

To those who knew of his son, William James Sidis was quite possibly the smartest man who ever lived. Born in Boston in 1898, William James Sidis made the headlines in the early 20th century as a child prodigy with an amazing intellect. His IQ was estimated to be 50 to 100 points higher than Albert Einstein's.

What is a good IQ score? ›

85 to 114: Average intelligence. 115 to 129: Above average or bright. 130 to 144: Moderately gifted. 145 to 159: Highly gifted.

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