Myth check
What Was Einstein's IQ? Why No One Knows the Einstein IQ
On this page
- What was Einstein’s IQ?
- Did Einstein ever take an IQ test?
- Where did the famous Einstein IQ numbers come from?
- Who made these estimates?
- How did IQ testing change during Einstein’s life?
- How rare would the claimed numbers be?
- Why do most people quote 160?
- What would a 160 IQ mean?
- Was Einstein a genius by IQ standards?
- Could anyone estimate Einstein’s IQ today?
- How can you check any famous IQ claim?
- What does the Einstein story teach about IQ claims?
- Can you compare your IQ to Einstein’s?
- FAQ
Einstein’s IQ is unknown. There is no evidence that Albert Einstein ever took an intelligence test1. The numbers you see, from 150 to 207 and beyond, are estimates by writers. They are not test scores, and they disagree with each other.
What was Einstein’s IQ?
Einstein’s IQ is not known, because he never took an IQ test that anyone has found a record of. An IQ is a score from a test, compared with the scores of a norming group. Without a test, there is no score to report.
What exists instead is a long list of guesses. A psychologist who reviewed the published claims found numbers from 150 to 207 and beyond1. That spread alone is a warning sign. If the numbers came from a real test, they would agree.
Did Einstein ever take an IQ test?
No. There is no evidence that Einstein ever took an intelligence test. Even a writer who printed a very high number for him said he never took one.
The timing makes a test unlikely too. Here is the order of events.
First, Einstein grew up before any successful intelligence test existed. Then the first successful intelligence test appeared in France. It was built for children, to find pupils who could not keep up at school. By then, Einstein was already an adult.
Later, the first successful test for adults was created in the United States: the Army Alpha. When it arrived, Einstein was 39, living in Europe, and already world famous. He had little reason to sit an intelligence test in midlife.
So no childhood score exists, and no adult score either.
Where did the famous Einstein IQ numbers come from?
The famous Einstein IQ numbers came from magazines, books and newspapers, each with its own guess. Here they are in the order they appeared.
| When | Where it appeared | Number |
|---|---|---|
| In his lifetime | LIFE magazine, comparing a child prodigy with Einstein | 205 (implied) |
| In his lifetime, later | LIFE magazine again | 192 |
| In his lifetime | Coronet magazine | a little higher than 160 |
| After his death | A writer in Popular Mechanics | 207 |
| Later still | A parenting book | 200, called “measured” |
| Later | The book Outliers | 150 |
| Today | Most press articles | 160, usually with no source |
The first number came from an indirect comparison. LIFE reported a young prodigy’s IQ and said it was a set number of points lower than Einstein’s. That implied 205. The same magazine later printed 1921.
Coronet magazine said his IQ was “probably a little higher” than 160. A writer in Popular Mechanics put it at 207, while noting that Einstein never took a test1.
Later claims went further. A parenting book called 200 a “measured” IQ, though no measurement is known. The book Outliers used 150. None of these writers showed a test result.
Who made these estimates?
Almost everyone who claimed to know Einstein’s IQ was a journalist or a popular writer. The psychologist who reviewed the claims found that experts were almost completely absent. That includes historians and psychologists1.
That matters. A score needs a test, the test’s norms and a person who took it. None of that exists here.
How did IQ testing change during Einstein’s life?
IQ testing changed a great deal during Einstein’s lifetime. It began as a school tool for children and became a scale for all ages. Here is the order.
First, Binet’s test in France placed each question at the average age at which children could solve it. A child’s result showed how far ahead or behind their peers they were.
Next, William Stern proposed dividing this mental age by the child’s real age. Terman then multiplied by 100 for the Stanford-Binet test, and the “intelligence quotient” took its familiar form. That ratio only works for children.
Then came the Army Alpha, the first successful test for adults. Later still, Wechsler solved the problem of scoring adults. He compared each person with the spread of scores in their age group. That is the deviation IQ used today.
By the time adult scores made sense, Einstein was middle-aged and famous. A childhood ratio score would not compare with a modern adult score anyway. Children’s testing today looks very different, as our guide to IQ tests for kids explains.
How rare would the claimed numbers be?
The claimed numbers would be extraordinarily rare on a modern scale. On a test with a standard deviation of 15, the rarity works out like this:
| Claimed IQ | How rare on an SD 15 scale |
|---|---|
| 150 | about 1 in 2,300 |
| 160 | about 1 in 32,000 |
| 192 | about 1 in 2,300,000,000 |
| 205 | about 1 in 780,000,000,000 |
The higher numbers describe rarities that no norming sample could ever show. No test is normed on anything close to that many people. That alone tells you they were never measured.
Why do most people quote 160?
Most people quote 160 because the press repeats it. It was never measured. The review found that 160 is a typical value in modern articles1. It is not clear where the press settled on it.
A number repeated often enough starts to feel like a fact. This one is not. It is one more link in a chain of guesses.
What would a 160 IQ mean?
A 160 IQ would be extremely rare. On a test with a standard deviation of 15, it is above the 99.99th percentile. About 1 in 32,000 people score that high or higher.
Few tests can even measure that high. Clinical tests have ceilings, and a short online test cannot separate scores at that level. See what a 160 IQ means for the full profile. The highest IQ score page explains how ceilings work.
Was Einstein a genius by IQ standards?
There is no IQ standard for genius, so this question has no test-based answer. Psychological dictionaries do not define a genius IQ4. The popular line of 140 comes from an old study of children, not from a rule.
Einstein’s reputation rests on his work in physics, which is a matter of record. His IQ is not. Our page on what IQ is considered genius explains why a score and achievement are different things.
Could anyone estimate Einstein’s IQ today?
No one can estimate Einstein’s IQ today in any way that counts as a score. An IQ compares a person’s test performance with a norming group of people the same age. There is no test performance to compare.
An estimate built from a life story is an opinion about a life, not a measurement. It cannot be checked against norms, and it cannot be given a range.
How can you check any famous IQ claim?
You can check any famous IQ claim with a few simple questions:
- Was there a test? If no one can name the test, there is no score.
- Which test and which norms? Scores from different tests and scales are not comparable.
- Who reported it? A test report is evidence; an article that repeats a number is not.
- Is there a range? Every real score comes with measurement error.
The Einstein numbers fail the first question. The IQ scale shows what real score bands look like. Our guide are IQ tests accurate explains measurement error.
What does the Einstein story teach about IQ claims?
The Einstein story shows how a number can travel for decades without a source. Each writer repeated or adjusted an earlier guess, and the guesses never agreed.
The same caution applies to scores you see online today. A score means something only when you know the test, its norms and its range. Unsupervised online tests also tend to run a little high. Our guide are IQ tests accurate explains how to judge any score, including your own.
Can you compare your IQ to Einstein’s?
No, because there is no Einstein score to compare with. You can, however, see where your own score stands among people today. Our free IQ test gives an estimate with a range. The IQ calculator turns any score into a percentile.
FAQ
Did Einstein take an IQ test?
No. There is no evidence that Einstein ever took an intelligence test. The first successful adult test appeared when he was 39 and already famous.
What was Albert Einstein’s IQ score?
Albert Einstein had no known IQ score. The numbers quoted for him, from 150 to 207 and beyond, are estimates by writers.
Is 160 IQ genius?
No score is officially genius. A 160 is extremely rare, about 1 in 32,000 people. But that is a statement about rarity, not about genius.
Why do sources give different numbers for Einstein’s IQ?
Sources disagree because each number is a separate guess, not a measurement. Guesses made without a test have nothing to anchor them.
Did LIFE magazine measure Einstein’s IQ?
No. LIFE compared a young prodigy’s IQ with Einstein’s and said it was a set number of points lower. That implied 205, but no test of Einstein was involved.
Who reviewed the Einstein IQ claims?
A psychologist, Russell Warne, traced the published claims back through magazines, books and articles, with page citations. He found no evidence of a test and numbers that disagree widely.
What is the highest IQ ever recorded?
No highest score can be named with confidence. No such claim is backed by a record we could verify. The highest IQ score page explains why.
Where does the number 160 come from?
The number 160 is the value most modern press articles repeat. A psychologist who traced the claims could not find where the press first settled on it.