Average IQ by Profession: 150 Jobs Ranked by Real Data (2026)

Updated 25 September 2026. About 14 minutes to read.

Where the data comes from

Measuring the average IQ of a profession properly is hard. You need to test a large, representative sample of working people and know exactly what each of them does. Very few studies manage it.

The most useful recent study is by the sociologist Tobias Wolfram, published in the journal Intelligence in 2023. It used Understanding Society, a long-running survey of more than 40,000 UK households designed to represent the whole population. Between 2011 and 2013, participants took five short cognitive tasks covering memory, number series, everyday arithmetic, working memory and verbal fluency. Their combined scores were converted to the standard IQ scale, where the average is 100 and the standard deviation is 15.

Around 29,000 people had both cognitive scores and job information. For less common jobs with only a handful of respondents, the study combined the survey data with detailed job information to produce more stable estimates for 360 occupations. That is the first representative ranking of its kind in about 30 years.

Average IQ by profession: the table

The table shows 150 of the 360 occupations in the study, including the most common and most searched jobs, ranked from highest to lowest average. Search for a job or filter by field.

Top 10 jobs with the highest average IQ

These are the ten highest averages in the UK data. Jobs that share a figure are listed in the order the study reports them.

1. Physicists and astronomers114
2. Meteorologists114
3. Geologists and geophysicists114
4. Veterinarians113
5. Air traffic controllers113
6. Medical doctors (GPs and specialists)112
7. Chemists112
8. Economists112
9. Mathematicians, actuaries and statisticians112
10. Aircraft pilots111

The common thread is heavy use of abstract reasoning: numbers, scientific models, complex systems or split-second decisions under pressure. Just behind them, at about 111, come university lecturers, software developers, finance managers and research and development managers.

Jobs with the lowest average IQ

At the other end, the study found the lowest averages in routine manual work. The lowest of all was packers, bottlers, canners and fillers, at about 87, with cleaning jobs also near the bottom. Among the jobs in our table, shop sales assistants, beauticians, dental nurses, tailors and cabinet-makers averaged about 98, only slightly below the population average of 100.

Two points are worth keeping in mind. First, these are averages: plenty of people in every one of these jobs score well above 100, and many choose their work for reasons that have nothing to do with ability, such as location, hours, family or preference. Second, many of these jobs depend on skills an IQ test does not measure, such as manual precision, stamina, and patience with the public.

Average IQ of popular professions

Doctors

GPs and specialist doctors both averaged about 112, among the highest of any job. Dentists averaged 109, pharmacists 109, optometrists 107 and physiotherapists 108.

Teachers

Primary and secondary teachers both averaged about 109, early years and special needs teachers about 108, and university lecturers about 111.

Engineers

Engineering ranges from about 105 to 109 depending on the field: electrical and industrial engineers 109, civil and chemical engineers 108, mechanical and electronics engineers 106, and telecommunications engineers 105.

Nurses and midwives

Nurses and midwives both averaged about 100, the same as the population as a whole. Given how much clinical knowledge the job demands, this is a reminder that IQ tests measure a narrow slice of ability.

Lawyers and judges

Lawyers and judges both averaged about 110, with legal secretaries at about 100.

Software developers and IT

Software developers, programmers and systems analysts averaged about 111, web developers 108, systems administrators 107 and IT support technicians 102.

Police and firefighters

Police officers averaged about 108 and police inspectors and detectives about 109. Firefighters averaged about 107 and prison officers about 101.

Electricians, plumbers and carpenters

Electricians averaged about 101, plumbers 99 and house builders 100. The published data does not list carpenters on their own; the closest group, cabinet-makers and related woodworkers, averaged about 98. These are skilled trades where practical training and hands-on experience count for a great deal.

Accountants and finance

Accountants, financial advisers and financial analysts averaged about 109, finance managers 111 and bank clerks 103.

Why the gaps are smaller than you might expect

If you have seen charts claiming doctors average 125 or more, the figures above may look low. There are three main reasons.

1. Old data. Many popular charts trace back to intelligence tests given to American military recruits during the World Wars, such as the Army General Classification Test in the 1940s. Those samples were limited to men of particular backgrounds, and the jobs and education systems of the time were very different.
2. More people with degrees. Far more people go to university now than in the 1940s, so professional jobs draw from a much wider range of people. A 2024 meta-analysis found that today's average undergraduate scores about 102, down from about 119 in the 1930s. Our guide to an IQ of 115 covers that study.
3. A short test. The UK survey used five brief tasks rather than a full clinical IQ test. Shorter tests measure less precisely, which tends to shrink the differences between groups, although the author corrected for this statistically.

Even so, the order of jobs closely matches earlier research. What has changed is mainly the size of the gaps, not which jobs come out on top.

The spread within each job matters more

An average hides a lot. In the UK study, only about a quarter of the variation in intelligence was between occupations. The remaining three quarters was between people doing the same job. For men and older workers, the share between occupations was closer to a third.

In practice, that means there are nurses who would outscore many doctors and plumbers who would outscore many lawyers. Knowing someone's job tells you something about their likely IQ, but much less than most people assume.

The study also found that the spread of scores gets narrower as a job's average rises. Demanding jobs tend to set a minimum level of reasoning ability that most people in them clear, while less demanding jobs attract people from right across the range. Researchers describe intelligence as a necessary but not sufficient condition for complex work: you need enough of it, but it does not guarantee success.

What about rocket scientists and brain surgeons?

A widely reported 2021 study in the BMJ tested aerospace engineers and neurosurgeons online and found their scores were not clearly different from the general public's. Wolfram notes that its volunteers were far more likely than average to have a university degree, which may have hidden real differences. It is a good reminder that how a sample is collected can change the answer.

Why jobs differ in average IQ

• Job complexity. Jobs that involve learning large amounts of abstract material or solving new problems every day tend to attract and keep people with higher reasoning scores. Researchers find that a job's average IQ is closely linked to how complex its tasks are.
• Education requirements. Many high-scoring jobs require a degree or professional exams, which act as filters.
• Self-selection. People tend to drift towards work that suits their abilities and interests, and away from jobs that feel too hard or too easy.
• More than intelligence. The UK study found that traits such as patience (being willing to delay rewards), openness and conscientiousness also sort people into different jobs, although none as strongly as intelligence.

Does IQ decide how successful you are at work?

IQ is linked with job performance, especially in complex roles, but it is only one factor. A 2022 re-analysis by Paul Sackett and colleagues found that the link between cognitive ability and job performance is weaker than older studies suggested. Studies from the long-running Wisconsin Longitudinal Study found that among people with the same level of education, IQ had little further influence on earnings or job status.

Experience, training, motivation, people skills and opportunity all shape a career. An IQ score can tell you something about how quickly you might pick up complex material. It cannot tell you which career will suit you or how far you will go. Our guide to what IQ tests measure explains what the number does and does not capture.

How does your score compare?

An IQ of 100 is exactly average, and about two thirds of people score between 85 and 115. Because job averages cluster between about 98 and 114, a score anywhere in the normal range is typical of people working in many different fields. See what counts as a good IQ score for the full chart, and our guides to an IQ of 120 and 130 for the higher end.

Frequently asked questions

IQScore tests and guides are for education and entertainment. Averages describe groups, not individuals, and should never be used to judge a person or to decide what career they can pursue.