High average, above-average ability on most tasks · Rarer than 1 in 9
🏛️ Mensa cutoff 130 — 12 points away
🌍 In the United States (national average ≈ 98, an estimate from test samples), an IQ of 118 is in the top 9.1%.
What an IQ of 118 means. Smarter than 88.5% of people. Classification: High Average — High average, above-average ability on most tasks. Rarer than 1 in 9.
IQ
Classification
Percentile
100
Average
50.0%
120
Superior
90.9%
130
Very Superior / Gifted
97.7%
❓ FAQ
Is an IQ of 118 a good score?
An IQ of 118 falls in the "High Average" range and is higher than 88.5% of the population.
What percentile is an IQ of 118?
An IQ of 118 sits at the 88.5th percentile — the top 11.5% of the population. Roughly 1 in 9 people score this high.
Can you join Mensa with an IQ of 118?
Mensa requires roughly IQ 130 (top 2% on SD15); 118 is 12 points below the cutoff. Practice and a supervised test may close the gap.
How many people have an IQ of 118 or higher?
Roughly 932,064,854 people worldwide — about 11.5% of 8.1 billion.