What is The Average IQ in the United Kingdom?
The average IQ in the United Kingdom is 99.12, which makes it one of the highest average IQs in Europe. In fact, only a handful of European countries have higher averages than the UK, namely Belarus, Finland, Germany, Estonia, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Hungary.
In terms of average IQ, the UK and the US are fairly close. However, the United Kingdom has a slight edge, with a score 1.69 points above the US average.
As impressive as the United Kingdom IQ average is, it’s still quite a bit lower than the averages of East Asian countries, which dominate the list of countries with the highest IQs. The most impressive among them is Japan, with an average IQ of 106.49, but Taiwan, Singapore, and China don’t lag far behind.
What is IQ and how is it measured?
IQ is a score used to denote the development of cognitive abilities, which encompass memory, pattern recognition, processing speed, logical reasoning, and deduction.
This score is measured on an IQ test by comparing the test taker’s performance to that of their peers. The performance is first expressed in percentiles and then transformed into a corresponding IQ score.
For instance, if the test taker performs better than 98% of their peers, they will belong to the 98th percentile, which equates to a score of 130.
Typically, standardized IQ tests such as the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, and Raven’s Progressive Matrices give the most accurate results.
However, as long as a test uses tried-and-true psychometric methods, it’s likely to be equally as precise.
The history of IQ testing in United Kingdom
A French psychologist, Alfred Binet, may have developed the first modern IQ test, but the whole concept of testing intelligence draws its roots from the United Kingdom and the famous British anthropologist Francis Galton.
Inspired by Darwin’s classification of animals and plants, Galton thought he could use a similar scientific approach to categorize humans according to intelligence and personality traits. He presented his views in his 1869 book Hereditary Genius, which earned him the title of the father of psychometrics.
Though his methods are considered primitive today, Galton was one of the first researchers to develop a test that measures mental capacity. He used this test, which focused on sensorimotor tasks, to assess the intellectual abilities of 10,000 visitors at the London Health Exhibition in 1894.
However, since the results were largely inconsistent, this test never saw wider use—but it did inspire Alfred Binet and his groundbreaking research at the beginning of the 20th century.
Misuse of IQ testing in the 20th-century UK
Francis Galton was the pioneer but certainly not the only scientist in the UK to take an interest in IQ testing. In fact, psychologist Cyril Burt took up the mantle in the 20th century and continued developing this branch of psychometrics in Britain.
Cyril Burt was the first educational psychologist officially appointed by a UK government body. As a result, he was able to test students’ performance on various IQ tests, striving to determine which factors affected intelligence.
However, his conclusions were mainly in favor of supporting the existing class system, both in 1909, when he published his first paper on general intelligence, and in 1940, when he wrote The Factors of the Mind, the book containing his beliefs and testing methods.
In other words, Burt was convinced that the IQ differences he observed in children attending private schools and those in regular elementary schools resulted from an innate superiority of the higher class.
Later examinations of his work proved that Burt occasionally falsified data, likely to further his agenda. However, the scientific community at large accepts his earlier research as valid.
Average IQ in the United Kingdom over time
Like in most countries, the average IQ of UK adults has been subject to the Flynn effect—a steady increase in the intelligence quotient first observed in 1984. In other words, the country’s IQ average supposedly increases by 3.3 points every decade.
However, James Flynn, the researcher who lent his name to the aforementioned effect, personally conducted a study on British teenagers and came to the surprising conclusion that their IQ dropped by two points between 1980 and 2008.
This discovery may have been evidence of the Flynn effect reversal if it hadn’t been characteristic only of teenagers, not average IQs of all ages.
Namely, the same study concluded that the average IQ of children between five and ten increased by half a point every year for three decades.
As a result, Flynn assumed that the reason UK teenagers were lagging behind their counterparts from the 1980s might be the stagnating youth culture, less reading, and increased screen time.
Facts and Myths about IQ in the United Kingdom
While there aren’t any specific myths about the average IQ in the United Kingdom, many misconceptions about intelligence were born there. These usually had to do with certain classes of people being naturally smarter than others, similarly to what Cyril Burt believed.
Cyril Burt wasn’t the only one to spread such inaccurate information, though. His predecessor, Francis Galton, is notorious for his eugenic ideas; in fact, he’s considered the father of eugenics as well as psychometrics.
Eugenics was a fairly popular set of beliefs among the British upper classes in the 20th century until it eventually fell into obscurity. Nowadays, it has very few proponents, who are certainly not influential enough to cause serious damage.
4 factors contributing to IQ in United Kingdom
The main factors contributing to the average IQ in the United Kingdom include its strong economy, high-quality education, accessible public healthcare, and a culture that values academic excellence.
Below, we will explore all these factors in more detail.
5 people from the United Kingdom with high IQs
This 12-year-old has reportedly scored 162 points on Mensa’s official IQ test. Although he’s too young to have any significant achievements under his belt, he clearly wields enormous potential for the future.
The Scottish microbiologist and physician is often deemed one of the most significant people of the 20th century due to his discovery of penicillin in 1928. This achievement was crowned with a Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1945, which he shared with his colleagues Howard Florey and Ernst Boris Chain.
Born in the US, poet and essayist T.S. Eliot officially became a UK citizen in 1927 and brought his new homeland the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948. He is especially renowned for his poem “The Waste Land,” which is considered one of the most important works of the 20th century.
The British politician known for serving as Prime Minister during World War II is also a successful writer who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his books recounting his experience during the war.
Find out your IQ score!
If you want to know where you rank on the IQ scale, test your cognition with IQtest.net, our professionally designed IQ test that uses the latest psychometric methods to measure your intelligence quotient with accuracy and precision.
Considering our IQ test is free, you can retake it as many times as you want, which is especially useful when you’re trying to develop your intelligence. Track your progress and exercise your mental faculties by solving tasks that specifically target different areas of your cognition.
