I was chatting with a friend the other day about IQ, and he sent me the following map of the average IQs around the world:
Just in case you are not able decipher the legend, the top box (yellow) reads “105”, followed by 100 (tan), 85-90 (orange), 70 (brown), and 60 (red). If you look closely, you will notice that all countries except China and those in Europe are blanketed by either orange, brown, or red, which means the average IQ of the people in those countries are below 90. Correct me if I am wrong, but aren’t IQ scores supposed to fit the Gaussian curve with a median of 100? In other words, isn’t “100” the average IQ score? If so, how can the average IQ of a big chunk of the world’s population be below 100?
The only explanation I can offer is this: China. Not only is the average IQ of Chinese 105, China is also the most populous country in the world. Perhaps the large population of higher average IQ balanced the equation when averaged with the population of lower average IQ. Even then, I am not totally convinced that explanation is sound — the math simply does not add up.
What do you think? Please offer your own explanation in the comments below.
Casual Observations 
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December 31, 2008 at 7:57 pm
joe wilson
IQ 100 is a “standard for world comparison.
IQ 100 is used as a benchmark-for-world. IQ 100 is for white 17-year old boy.
In Europe, half are above 100, half are below 100.
Note: the IQ is for Native populations, Not the Brits who settled Australia or New Nealand for Immigrants to USA.
Dr. James Watson, of DNA, noted Africans had pretty low IQ. Not sure where it came from but probably own research.
IQ 105, in East Asia
IQ 100, in Europe
IQ 85-90, Rest of world
IQ 70, in Africa
IQ 60, Natives of Africa and Australia.
True-False
Real-Fake
Real-Hoax.
Real-Fraud. Is this map for Real? Will have to wait for Evidence.
March 12, 2009 at 11:41 pm
Chris Fitzpatrick
How is it that Australia has the lowest iq? to me this makes no sense. we are NOT A STUPID CONTRY we even invented a gun that shoots 100,000 bullets a minute. check the genuines book of world records if you must. plus an AUSTRALIAN scientist found a treatment for cervix cancer. soo how is our iq lower than 60??? seriously 22 million people with the iq of 60…. that just dosnt work. how??
we are not a poor stupid contry we have hospitals and schools im sure they got this wrong
if our iq was an average of 60.. we would not have school and mainly hospital or anyother thing that requires the iq above fucking 60… so how?? wheres the logic? we live in a rich contry with Great hopital service and schools plus teltra made a promas that they was gona make fibure optic cables going to every house in australia
April 23, 2011 at 1:23 am
Lucas
It is for native population aka aborigines, in terms of TOTAL we are above the USA and in the league of Europe
July 16, 2013 at 9:37 am
Vuil
I was about to say that it is for indigenous people, but having read you posting I think I must be incorrect. It must be for the inhabitants. 🙂
April 27, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Tom
I went to Australia once… I think the map is accurate.
July 5, 2009 at 12:29 pm
a pom who supports the aussies on this
I thought that map looked odd too with the bit about Australia, I think its some Kiwis idea of a joke, its from wikipedia so anyone could have made that map.
Don’t worry Aussies, probably everyone knows that maps been tampered with.
July 5, 2009 at 12:40 pm
a pom who supports the aussies on this
This looks like a authentic IQ map and Australia looks matched with Europe, North America and Asia:
Thats the proper map, not that fake orange one.
July 18, 2009 at 11:55 am
Shane
Joe Wilson is correct, this map is based on the indigenous populations only, so, perhaps it could be accurate towards the indigenous peoples’ IQ. Every other map that I have looked at have Australia’s IQ hovering around 98. Again, though, these are deceptive as well. For example, when IQ studies are done in China, they are only done within urban areas from which they calculate the entire Chinese population to have the same IQ.
August 13, 2009 at 3:41 pm
texapino
the sum of the populations of the light yellow countries is over 1.5 billion..adding the light orange countries makes another billion..almost half the world’s people right there..the other half live in below-avg iq nations..i’m not surprised africa is especially low but australia?..i thought they had the best education system in the world lol
February 24, 2011 at 10:32 pm
kim
Dear God Chris F.. You sure helped our cause!!!
I got a score of between 105 and 110 on 3 different tests, and well and truly MOST people here in Australia seem pretty bright to me, so that map doesn’t mean much.
August 9, 2011 at 8:17 am
Peter
I think iq can sometimes be a grey area. Sometimes iq tests are purely to test mental agility. A proper iq test should be culture fair with no biased language or math. Iq tests are set by western cultures usually, so a native aborigine or native person from Sudan may be at a huge disadvantage if they were to sit one.
However, there is obviously a huge cross section of people around the world, and so you are bound to get very intelligent people, just as you are bound to get groups of unintelligent people, and genetics may well come into it.
November 24, 2011 at 7:59 am
Aivaz
Turkey people have an average IQ of 91, which just shows how fake this map is (Turkey should have been of color yellow). Besides this, I think this assignment of IQ to nations is a way of humiliating poor countries, such as African, American, or South Asian ones. It’s proved that IQ has to do with both genetics, and nutrimental environment. Especially according to scientific findings, if a person keeps eating dishes containing more protein s/he would have a higher IQ. Now think of an Ethiopian child.. S/he hardly can find anything to eat, let alone choosing a protein-based nutrition diet. What I am trying to say is that if Africans were given equal conditions, such as providing them with good nutrition, then the gap would have been closed. But choosing a way to just say that “We Europeans are smarter, haha ours are bigger than yours” is nothing but a complex just making the Europeans the stupid ones ignoring the another possible facts contributing to the IQ.
January 28, 2012 at 11:35 pm
Francisco
I.Q. is the result of millions of years of natural evolution. And so, it’s mainly a genetic factor. The environmental pressure has played a huge role on this process. We all like the ideia that inteligence is the best thing in the world, but nature sees everything from a diferent perspective. For nature, the goal is survivence, and to reach this goal, everything must be carefully balanced. The brain is one organ that consumes lots of energy, and the bigger the brain is, the more energy it will consume. So, in an arid environment just like Africa or Australia, humans have struggled for millions of years just to be able to stay alive and reproduce. Only those with the right charateristis were able to adapt themselves to such oppressive environments. And here, the right characteristics mean some more fuel efficient organs, starting by the brain. On these environments, a good brain is a brain with just enough power to hunt and to do a few other basic tasks. Big brains were a huge disadvantage here, due to their high fuel consumption. Now, those in more resourfull environments, such as europeans and asians , had more energy available to develop bigger brains. The invention of the agriculture was a giant leap on this evolutive process. The industrial revolution, just two hundred years ago, brought us even more resouces, like we had never had in our existence as humans. And so, if we keep this pace, it’s natural that in some thousands of generations into the future, the entire human race will reach average I.Q.’s of 130 or even more.
February 5, 2012 at 5:42 pm
shasha
I really don’t want to hurt any one here, I am Chinese, during past four years I live in the USA, I really found most of people here are not smart, but in China most of people are smart no much different. This found coincident to the thory I was tought in my psychology class. The curve of IQ score in China is wide, means more high iq people, but the US’s is pretty narrow.
Google it.
August 29, 2012 at 6:30 pm
Robo
A “wide” curve does not imply a high mean (or median for that matter). Perhaps it is not that Americans so dumb but that Chinese visitors have failed to understand what is being talked about.
February 7, 2012 at 12:22 pm
IQ difference between blacks and white south africans? - Page 2 - Stormfront
[…] if we are going to go all socio-biological we better write women off too. Per Bootes BTW Bootes Have a look, India has worse socio economic conditions than South Africa's blacks yet a 13% mean higher average […]
February 22, 2012 at 5:37 pm
Mark
You white people should thank Chinese govenment. If there is not communism in China, them every province of China will be the same of Taiwan.The world would already been Chinese’s.
March 12, 2012 at 12:44 am
Joe
People’s average IQ will be increased under Communism system, you have to increase your IQ to survive, you have to lie, and lie and lie, consequently under such an environment, you become “smarter” and get higher IQ, was in China for 25 years, I know that.
June 27, 2012 at 4:15 pm
viggo
How come blacks have IQ in the world?
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