Is an IQ of 127 good?

How rare is an IQ of 127?

Only about 3.6% of people score higher than 127. Here is what that looks like in groups of different sizes:

What an IQ of 127 means

An IQ of 127 is 27 points above the average of 100, or 1.80 standard deviations above the mean. It falls in the superior band.

Scores from 120 to 129 are well above average, higher than roughly 91–97% of people. People in this range usually find abstract reasoning, new material and complex problems come quickly.

How a 127 does on our test

On our free 30-question test, an IQ of 127 takes about 27 correct answers out of 30. Here is how 27 correct answers usually split across the four areas:

• Pattern reasoning 9 of 10
• Numerical reasoning 6 of 7
• Verbal reasoning 5 of 6
• Logical reasoning 7 of 7

Worked out from our scoring model, assuming the easier questions are the ones you get right. Harder questions count for more, so two people with the same number correct can score a few points apart. We’ll replace this with real results once enough people have taken the test. How scoring works

No job group’s typical worker scored 127

127 is above the median of all 56 job groups in a study that followed Wisconsin men from high school into their 50s. The highest group, physicians, had a median of 120.5. Even among physicians, only about 25% scored 127 or higher.

IQ 127

1. Social scientists 111

   Median 111. Middle half of workers 98 to 120. Middle 80% 93 to 127.

2. Legal occupations 113

   Median 113. Middle half of workers 109 to 124. Middle 80% 99 to 133.

3. Electrical engineers 113

   Median 113. Middle half of workers 103 to 121. Middle 80% 95 to 129.

4. College professors 115

   Median 115. Middle half of workers 104 to 124. Middle 80% 97 to 133.

5. Physicians (MD or equivalent) 120.5

   Median 120.5. Middle half of workers 112 to 127. Middle 80% 106 to 133.

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Source: Hauser (2002), Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, Figure 12. The study covers men who finished high school in Wisconsin in 1957 and their brothers, with IQ measured in high school (Henmon-Nelson test, group average 102) and jobs held in 1992–94. Groups with fewer than 30 people are left out, and people who left school early aren’t in the study, so low scores are under-represented. Every job spans a wide range: 27 to 42 points between its 10th and 90th percentile.

Famous people near IQ 127

Published test results and estimates within 5 points of 127. The presidents’ figures come from a 2006 study that worked them out from biographies, not tests, on an older IQ scale. Each is the average of four estimates. Eight presidents have estimates based on records of their childhood and youth, the method Catharine Cox used for historical geniuses in 1926; the rest were imputed statistically and are rougher still.

• Estimated: about 127

  Gerald Ford

  38th US president (1974–77)

  Four estimates from 113.3 to 140.4, imputed from experts’ ratings, so more tentative.

• Estimated: about 127

  William Howard Taft

  27th US president (1909–13)

  Four estimates from 114.5 to 139.5, imputed from experts’ ratings, so more tentative.

• Estimated: about 127

  Calvin Coolidge

  30th US president (1923–29)

  Four estimates from 111.4 to 141.6, imputed from experts’ ratings, so more tentative.

• Estimated: about 128

  Harry S. Truman

  33rd US president (1945–53)

  Four estimates from 115.5 to 139.8, imputed from experts’ ratings, so more tentative.

Sources: Simonton (2006), Political Psychology .

IQ 127 on other scales

Not every test uses the same scale. The same performance that earns 127 on a modern test with a standard deviation of 15 produces a different number on tests with a wider spread:

Scores near 127

Wondering where most people land? See what the average IQ is, or every band on the IQ scale.

IQ 127: common questions

By the MyIQTest team · Reviewed November 2026 · Figures assume the standard scale (mean 100, SD 15). Methodology