High average, above-average ability on most tasks · Rarer than 1 in 8
🏛️ Mensa cutoff 130 — 13 points away
🌍 In the United States (national average ≈ 98, an estimate from test samples), an IQ of 117 is in the top 10.3%.
What an IQ of 117 means. Smarter than 87.1% of people. Classification: High Average — High average, above-average ability on most tasks. Rarer than 1 in 8.
IQ
Classification
Percentile
100
Average
50.0%
120
Superior
90.9%
130
Very Superior / Gifted
97.7%
❓ FAQ
Is an IQ of 117 a good score?
An IQ of 117 falls in the "High Average" range and is higher than 87.1% of the population.
What percentile is an IQ of 117?
An IQ of 117 sits at the 87.1th percentile — the top 12.9% of the population. Roughly 1 in 8 people score this high.
Can you join Mensa with an IQ of 117?
Mensa requires roughly IQ 130 (top 2% on SD15); 117 is 13 points below the cutoff. Practice and a supervised test may close the gap.
How many people have an IQ of 117 or higher?
Roughly 1,041,151,339 people worldwide — about 12.9% of 8.1 billion.