What Does an IQ of 145 Mean?

An IQ of 145 is at the 99.87th percentile: it is higher than about 99.87% of people of the same age, and about 1 in 741 people scores 145 or higher. On the WAIS-IV it is classed as Very Superior. Like every IQ score it is an estimate with a margin of error of several points, and it predicts outcomes only on average.

IQ 145 percentile and how it is calculated

IQ tests are scaled so that scores follow an approximately normal distribution with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation (SD) of 15. A score of 145 is 3 standard deviations above the mean (z = +3.000). Plugging that into the normal cumulative distribution function gives a percentile of 99.87. Put simply: in a representative group of 1,000 people of your age, about 1 would score 145 or higher.

Some reports use a slightly different convention — for example the percentage of people scoring strictly below 145, or a value read from the test’s own norm tables rather than the ideal curve — so you may see a percentile a fraction of a point different. The full list for every score from 55 to 160 is in our IQ percentile chart.

How 145 compares with nearby scores

Is 145 a good IQ score?

Yes — 145 is extremely rare, about 1 in 740 people. See also what counts as a good IQ score.

How rare is a 145 IQ?

On the normal model, about 1 in 741 people scores 145 or higher. That is about 1,350 per million people, or roughly 67,500 people in a country of 50 million. Rarity grows quickly in the tails: each extra 5 points above 100 multiplies the rarity, which is why the step from 145 to 150 (1 in 741 → 1 in 2,330) is much bigger than the step from 140 to 145.

145 IQ classification

Different tests use different descriptive words for the same number. For a full-scale score of 145:

These labels describe where a score falls relative to peers; they are not diagnoses. Newer reports, such as the WAIS-5 sample report, use plainer wording (“Average”, “Above average”, “Very high”). See all bands in IQ score ranges and classification.

What an IQ of 145 means in practice

145 is three standard deviations above the mean. It corresponds to the 99.87th percentile, or about one person in 740. On the Stanford-Binet 5 it opens the “Very Gifted / Highly Advanced” band; Wechsler tests simply keep it in their top band.

With normative samples of about 2,200 people (WAIS-IV), only about three people in the entire sample would be expected to score 145 or higher. The numbers at this level therefore rest on statistical extrapolation from the normal curve rather than on many observed people, and scores are much more sensitive to a single correct or incorrect answer.

In real life, people at this level are not a uniform group. Their profiles are often highly uneven, and studies of profoundly gifted students (for example the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth) emphasise that educational fit — acceleration, mentoring, appropriately challenging work — matters as much as the score.

145 IQ jobs, education and life outcomes: what research says

Large meta-analyses agree that IQ predicts educational and occupational outcomes on average, with plenty of individual exceptions. Strenze (2007), pooling longitudinal studies, found corrected correlations of about .56 between intelligence and education, .43 with occupational level and .20 with income. For job performance, Schmidt and Hunter (1998) estimated a validity of about .51 for general mental ability; a 2022 re-analysis by Sackett and colleagues revised it to about .31, still useful but leaving most differences in performance to other factors such as experience, conscientiousness and job knowledge.

How does 145 look against real occupations? The table uses Wolfram’s (2023) estimates from the UK Understanding Society survey and assumes a typical spread of about 13 points inside each occupation (the study found only about a quarter of IQ variance lies between occupations). It shows how many people in each group would be expected to score below 145 — a reminder of how much occupations overlap.

Read more in average IQ by occupation. These are group estimates from a short test battery, not entry requirements.

Measurement error: how precise is a score of 145?

A full-length clinical test such as the WAIS-IV or WAIS-5 has very high reliability (internal consistency around .97–.98 for the full-scale IQ), which still leaves a standard error of measurement (SEM) of about 2–3 points; Pearson’s WAIS-5 sample report lists an FSIQ SEM of 3.00. A 95% confidence interval is roughly ±1.96 SEM, so a measured 145 is best read as about 139 to 151. Shorter tests have larger errors (SEM 4–5 or more), widening the band to roughly 136–154.

Extreme scores also tend to move toward the mean on re-testing (regression to the mean). With a reliability of .96, the best estimate of the “true” score behind an observed 145 is about 143.2, which is why many reports centre the confidence interval slightly below the obtained score.

What an IQ of 145 does not tell you

• It does not measure creativity, practical wisdom, emotional skills, motivation or character.
• It is a sample of performance on one day; sleep, stress, language and familiarity with tests all affect it.
• Index scores (verbal, spatial, reasoning, memory, speed) can differ widely behind the same full-scale number.
• It does not fix the future: correlations of .2 to .6 leave room for very different outcomes among people with the same score.
• It cannot be compared across very different tests or eras without adjusting for norms.

The Flynn effect and old norms

The Flynn effect is the long-run rise in raw test performance across generations — roughly 3 IQ points per decade in 20th-century data (Trahan et al., 2014, estimated about 2.9). Its practical consequence is that a test scored against old norms overstates IQ. If your test was normed 10 years before you took it, a 145 could be inflated by around 3 points compared with current norms.

Online IQ tests and a score of 145

An online score of 145 is not the same as a clinical 145. Online tests usually lack a proper norm sample, can be retaken until a result looks good, and vary wildly in difficulty. Some research-grade public tools exist (for example the ICAR item bank; Condon & Revelle, 2014), but even they are designed for group research, not individual diagnosis. More in our guide to online IQ test accuracy.

How to get a proper IQ assessment

A valid IQ score comes from an individually administered, standardized test (for example the WAIS-5/WAIS-IV for adults, WISC-V for children, or Stanford-Binet 5) given by a licensed or registered psychologist. Expect 60–120 minutes of testing, a written report with index scores and confidence intervals, and a fee that varies by country and provider. Schools, university disability services, and clinical or neuropsychology services can refer you. Ask which test and which norms were used, and for the confidence interval, not just the single number.