IQ 109: what it means, percentile and how rare it is

An IQ score of 109 is higher than about 72.6% of people, which puts it in the 73rd percentile. Roughly 1 in 3.6 people score higher than 109. On the WISC-V it is classified as Average.

Percentile: 73rd
Higher than: 72.6%
People scoring higher: 1 in 3.6
WISC-V classification: Average

Where an IQ of 109 falls on the bell curve. The shaded area is the 27.4% of people who score higher. (+0.60 SD)

What does an IQ of 109 mean?

109 is the highest score in the Average range (90–109); one more point would move it into the next range.
In a group of 100 people, about 27 would score higher than 109.

About half of all people score between 90 and 109, the Average range. 100 is the exact middle of the scale by design: tests are normed so that the average adult or child of a given age scores 100.

Within this range, differences of a few points mean very little. Once measurement error of about ±5 points is taken into account, a 96 and a 104 are effectively the same result.

An average score is not a limit. Most people in every career and walk of life score in or near this range, and knowledge, skills, effort and personality explain far more about day-to-day success than a few IQ points.

IQ 109 on other scales and tests

Different tests spread scores differently. The same rank as an IQ of 109 on an SD-15 test gives these numbers elsewhere:

Scale	Equivalent score	Classification
SD 15: WISC-V, WAIS, Stanford-Binet 5	109	Average
WAIS-IV (older label)	109	Average
Stanford-Binet 5	109	Average
SD 16: older Stanford-Binet, Cattell Culture Fair	110	–
SD 24: Cattell III B	114	–

How precise is an IQ score of 109?

No test measures IQ exactly. On individually administered tests such as the WAIS, the full-scale score comes with a 95% confidence interval of roughly ±5 points, so a result of 109 is best read as "probably somewhere between 104 and 114". Scores can also shift a few points between different tests or after a few years.

Online tests, including ours, are self-assessments. They are useful for curiosity and practice, but they are not a substitute for an assessment by a psychologist.

IQ scores near 109

IQ score	Percentile	Higher than	WISC-V classification
104	61st	60.5%	Average
105	63rd	63.1%	Average
106	66th	65.5%	Average
107	68th	68%	Average
108	70th	70.3%	Average
109	73rd	72.6%	Average
110	75th	74.8%	High Average
111	77th	76.8%	High Average
112	79th	78.8%	High Average
113	81st	80.7%	High Average
114	82nd	82.5%	High Average

Check another IQ score

IQ score

Test scale (standard deviation)

Or start from a percentile

For example 98 for the top 2%.

Percentile: 73rd
Higher than: 72.6%
People scoring higher: 1 in 3.6
Classification (WISC-V): Average

IQ 109: frequently asked questions

Is an IQ of 109 good?+

An IQ of 109 is an average score: it is in the range where half of all people fall and it is higher than about 72.6% of people. It is a typical result, and it does not limit what you can learn or do.

What percentile is an IQ of 109?+

An IQ of 109 is in the 73rd percentile on a scale with mean 100 and standard deviation 15. It is higher than about 72.6% of people and lower than about 27.4%.

How rare is an IQ of 109?+

Roughly 1 in 3.6 people score higher than 109. In a group of 1,000 people you would expect about 274 to score higher.

Is 109 above average?+

Slightly, but not in a meaningful way. 109 is a little above the mean of 100, yet it is still inside the Average range (90 to 109), and the difference is smaller than the typical ±5-point measurement error.