— IQ score explained

IQ of 116 — meaning, percentile & profile

An IQ of 116 is in the high-average range — above 86% of adults. The majority of college graduates fall in this range.

What does IQ 116 mean in practice?

An IQ of 116 means your raw performance on a standardised IQ test places you at the 86th percentile of the general adult population — higher than 86% of people. People at this level typically find abstract reasoning, pattern-matching, and learning new skills comes naturally.

IQ 116 and the normal distribution

IQ is defined with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. An IQ of 116 is 1.07 standard deviations above the mean. The normal distribution tells us that:

• About 68% of people score between 85 and 115
• About 95% of people score between 70 and 130
• About 99.7% of people score between 55 and 145
• An IQ of 116 is higher than 86% of the adult population

IQ 116 and career outcomes

An IQ of 116 comfortably supports most knowledge-worker careers. Nurses, teachers, programmers, and managers typically average in the 110-120 range. At this level, habits, work ethic, and people skills account for far more of career success than the IQ number does.

Comparing IQ 116 to common benchmarks

How to accurately measure your IQ

A reliable IQ test uses Item Response Theory (IRT) scoring, which adapts the scoring based on item difficulty parameters rather than simply counting correct answers. Core Brain uses IRT 3PL (three-parameter logistic) scoring — the same statistical framework used by the WAIS and Stanford-Binet — and returns your score with a 95% confidence interval so you know the measurement uncertainty.

Related IQ scores

• IQ 103 — Average range, 58th percentile
• IQ 105 — Average range, 63th percentile
• IQ 108 — Average range, 70th percentile
• IQ 110 — High average, 75th percentile
• IQ 112 — High average, 79th percentile

Related reading

• Full IQ-to-percentile reference chart
• What is the average IQ?
• IQ test types compared
• Mensa IQ score requirement