<p>Rank Country IQ estimate Rank Country IQ estimate Rank Country IQ estimate
1 Hong Kong 107 28 Russia 96 55 Fiji 84
2 South Korea 106 29 Slovakia 96 56 Iran 84
3 Japan 105 30 Uruguay 96 57 Marshall Islands 84
4 Taiwan 104 31 Portugal 95 58 Puerto Rico 84
5 Singapore 103 32 Slovenia 95 59 Egypt 83
6 Austria 102 33 Israel 94 60 India 81
7 Germany 102 34 Romania 94 61 Ecuador 80
8 Italy 102 35 Bulgaria 93 62 Guatemala 79
9 Netherlands 102 36 Ireland 93 63 Barbados 78
10 Sweden 101 37 Greece 92 64 Nepal 78
11 Switzerland 101 38 Malaysia 92 65 Qatar 78
12 Belgium 100 39 Thailand 91 66 Zambia 77
13 China (PRC) 100 40 Croatia 90 67 Republic of the Congo 73
14 New Zealand 100 41 Peru 90 68 Uganda 73
15 United Kingdom 100 42 Turkey 90 69 Jamaica 72
16 Hungary 99 43 Indonesia 89 70 Kenya 72
17 Poland 99 44 Suriname 89 71 South Africa 72
18 Spain 99 45 Colombia 89 72 Sudan 72
19 Australia 98 46 Brazil 87 73 Tanzania 72
20 Denmark 98 47 Iraq 87 74 Ghana 71
21 France 98 48 Mexico 87 75 Nigeria 67
22 Norway 98 49 Samoa 87 76 Guinea 66
23 United States 98 50 Tonga 87 77 Zimbabwe 66
24 Canada 97 51 Lebanon 86 78 Congo 65
25 Czech Republic 97 52 Philippines 86 79 Sierra Leone 64
26 Finland 97 53 Cuba 85 80 Ethiopia 63
27 Argentina 96 54 Morocco 85 81 Equatorial Guinea 59</p>
<p>iq is nothing, people boost theirs up by training for like 30 points</p>
<p>I’ll bet you got that from wikipedia. IQ means nothing at national level, since the US, which is ranked 23rd, is the world’s only super power. Clearly, either IQ matters little, or the UQ tests are biased for some skills, such as mathematical skills, which most underdeveloped nations (such as African nations) do not care much about.</p>
<p>What’s this thread got to do with college admissions?</p>
<p>Zilch. Nada. Absolutely nothing.</p>
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<p>your powers of extrapolation are weak.</p>
<p>having said that, there’s something fishy about the list. isn’t the mean supposed to be constantly recalibrated to 100? the countries 1-11 (i.e. above 100) form a rather small proportion of world population.</p>
<p>In fact the list is from wikipedia, here’s the link: [IQ</a> and the Wealth of Nations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IQ_and_the_Wealth_of_Nations]IQ”>IQ and the Wealth of Nations - Wikipedia). From a cursory glacne through the article, it’s clear that the list is by no means an authoritative one. So I wouldn’t advise anyone to take it particularly seriously.</p>
<p>Jeez, whoever wrote Hong Kong is a country is a big moron.</p>
<p>Haha 
(10 char)</p>
<p>asuraykk, please get real. IQ by country, the ridiculousness of it all!</p>
<p>Their method for arriving at country’s IQ estimates is questionable at best:
</p>
<p>[IQ</a> and the Wealth of Nations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“Nations and IQ - Wikipedia”>Nations and IQ - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>If you think that the US is the only world’s hope or the worlds only super power, you are gonnna get bashed up by random dudes from other countries. Please, dont invade on this site.</p>
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<p>Well, US has been “importing” a lot of talents. Even many Nobel winners are foreign-born. Not to mention this is about “average”. Certainly we have many of the brightest in the world but if you are talking about average, I think you are wrong to think US should be anywhere near the top. I came from Hong Kong and definitely think the average is higher there. Over there, everything seems so well-run and people are fast and efficient even at the low-level jobs like cashier at supermarkets.</p>
<p>
You are right that IQ scores are calibrated to have a mean of 100. However, the calibration is probably based on a restricted population sample (most likely from an industrialized nation) rather than a global average. Adult IQ scores correlate too much with formal education to be a good measure in third-world countries.</p>
<p>That being said, I think the statistics sound really fishy. I cannot imagine how one would get representative samples of any individual country at all, let alone for so many countries.</p>
<p>Further to what everyone has said, I see that UK conveniently has the average IQ as 100. I am now assuming that the test was devised and calibrated in the UK. Clearly that makes the test useless outside the UK because you cannot compare IQs between countries.</p>
<p>Put people of different origins through the same education and same environment and then take an IQ test. I know the IQ test may not test factual knowledge taught at school, but living in different environments makes people think and learn differently. </p>
<p>If someone from Hong Kong was stuck in a forest with a war going on, that person is more likely to do something silly than someone from Congo. Not everyone from Congo might have been in the forest during their lives, but there’s a lot that you learn from your environment. Such a test would put that list upside down, and to someone trying save their lives in a war, that would be a much better test of their mental ability than the “IQ” test devised for people of the richer world.</p>
<p>I don’t know what the IQ test had in it, but I’m sure putting someone through a British education would improve their score considerably.</p>
<p>EDIT: Here’s the list sorted properly:
</p>
<p>China’s IQ score is 105 not 100.The above IQ numbers are from the book written by Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen, they updated the IQ scores in 2006. For the complete list, go to “IQ and Global Inequality” in Wikipedia. You will find the 2006 numbers right next to the 2002 ones at the bottom.</p>
<p>The most recent IQ score for China is 105 not 100. The above IQ numbers are from the book written by Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen in 2002. They updated the IQ scores in 2006. For the complete list, go to “IQ and Global Ineqality” in Wikipedia. You will find the 2006 figures right next 2002 ones at the bottom.</p>
<p>China’s IQ number is 105 not 100. These figures are from the book written by Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen in 2002. The same people updated the scores in 2006. For the complete list go to “IQ and Global Inequality” in Wikipedia. You will find the 2006 numbers right next 2002 ones at the bottom.</p>
<p>There are several problems with this list.</p>
<p>** Problem 1 **
The average IQ of the world’s population is supposed to be 100. Therefore, I would assume if you multiply the average IQ for each country by the population and sum it up for all 81 countries, and divide by the worlds population, you should get 100.
You will observe that only one major country has an average IQ of greater than equal to 100, which is China and that too just marginally. The majority of the rest have average IQs much less than 100. India, with a population of more than a billion, has an average IQ of 81, for example.
Therefore, calculating the average IQ of the world from this table would probable lead to a value of around 85-90. </p>
<p>** Problem 2 **
The average IQ of a couple of these countries, like Zimbabwe, for instance, is less than 70. Seventy happens to be the cutoff for legal retardation (courtesy: Forrest Gump). Are you trying to say, assuming the IQ trend holds, that more than half the Zimbabwean population is legally ■■■■■■■■? </p>
<p>** Problem 3 **
IQ tests, as everyone must’ve seen, tests English skill. Now, if you expect people from Sierra Leone to know English, it doesn’t reflect on how smart they are. No wonder the chart says they’re legally ■■■■■■■■.</p>
<p>** Problem 4 **
I don’t know the source of your data, but this chart obviously seems biased towards the… err… east Asian countries. :|</p>
<p>To FunkySATMonkey: Go to “IQ and Global Inequality” in Wikipedia. You will find the 2006 IQ figures right next the 2002 ones at the bottom of the page. English language skill has nothing to do with the IQ scores. Chinese take an Iq test in Chinese and French takes it in French and so on. What makes you think IQ tests are biased towards East Asians? Do you have proof for that?</p>