Average IQ by U.S. State: The Updated Ranking—and Why Many “2026” Lists Use 2006 Data

Written and Reviewed by the Cognitive Train Team

If you search for the “average IQ by state 2026,” you may see Massachusetts at 104.3. That number is real—but it comes from a paper published in 2006, not a 2026 IQ survey.

A 2022 peer-reviewed update ranks New Hampshire first among the 50 U.S. states at 103.2, followed by Massachusetts at 103.1 and Minnesota at 102.9. New Mexico is last at 95.0. These figures are state-level cognitive estimates built from adult literacy/numeracy and student reading/math data; they are not direct averages from millions of residents taking standard clinical IQ tests.

That distinction is essential. “Average IQ by state” tables are statistical estimates, and different methods produce different rankings. Cognitive Train’s Intelligence & IQ guides explain how an IQ score differs from the broader idea of intelligence.

Average IQ by U.S. State: All 50 States

The table below reproduces the state-IQ rank and score reported in Bryan Pesta’s 2022 peer-reviewed update of IQ estimates for all 50 U.S. states. The author standardized the state estimates to a mean of 100 and standard deviation of 15.

Rank	State	Estimated IQ
1	New Hampshire	103.2
2	Massachusetts	103.1
3	Minnesota	102.9
4	Vermont	102.2
5	North Dakota	101.7
6	Wyoming	101.7
7	Washington	101.5
8	Utah	101.5
9	Virginia	101.2
10	Nebraska	101.2
11	Connecticut	101.2
12	Wisconsin	101.2
13	Colorado	101.1
14	Iowa	101.1
15	Montana	101.1
16	New Jersey	101.0
17	Maine	100.9
18	South Dakota	100.7
19	Indiana	100.6
20	Idaho	100.5
21	Kansas	100.5
22	Oregon	100.3
23	Pennsylvania	100.2
24	Ohio	100.0
25	Maryland	100.0
26	Michigan	99.6
27	Missouri	99.5
28	North Carolina	99.5
29	Alaska	99.4
30	Rhode Island	99.4
31	Illinois	99.4
32	Hawaii	99.2
33	Kentucky	98.8
34	Florida	98.8
35	Delaware	98.7
36	New York	98.4
37	Arizona	98.3
38	Tennessee	98.3
39	Oklahoma	98.2
40	Georgia	98.1
41	South Carolina	97.8
42	Texas	97.4
43	West Virginia	97.2
44	Arkansas	97.1
45	California	97.1
46	Nevada	96.6
47	Alabama	96.4
48	Mississippi	95.8
49	Louisiana	95.2
50	New Mexico	95.0

Important: these are aggregate state estimates. A score of 103.2 for New Hampshire does not mean the average resident took an IQ test and scored 103.2, and it tells you almost nothing about a particular person from New Hampshire.

Where Do These 2022 State IQ Scores Come From?

Pesta’s update combined two very different sources of cognitive-performance data.

For adults, it used literacy and numeracy information from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, or PIAAC. The National Center for Education Statistics now provides model-based adult literacy and numeracy estimates for all 50 states. PIAAC measures practical skills such as understanding written material and using mathematical information.

For school-age performance, the study used National Assessment of Educational Progress reading and mathematics scores from 2015, 2017, and 2019. NAEP is administered under the same national framework across states, which makes it useful for geographic comparison. Current official NAEP state results continue to report reading and mathematics achievement, although NAEP itself is not an IQ test.

The study standardized the measures and averaged the derived PIAAC and NAEP cognitive estimates. That is why the table is best understood as an IQ-like state cognitive proxy, not a literal census of IQ scores.

Why Do Many “2026” State IQ Lists Put Massachusetts First?

Because they are still reproducing an older table.

McDaniel’s 2006 study estimated state IQ primarily from NAEP achievement data. In that table, Massachusetts scored 104.3, New Hampshire 104.2, North Dakota and Vermont 103.8, and Minnesota 103.7. Mississippi was lowest at 94.2.

Those numbers remain widely circulated, sometimes under headings such as “Average IQ by State 2026.” The year in the page title may describe when the webpage was updated; it does not make the underlying IQ estimates new.

The 2022 update changes some positions while preserving a broadly similar pattern. New Hampshire moves just ahead of Massachusetts, and the range narrows from roughly 94–104 in the 2006 table to 95–103 in the 2022 table.

Does New Hampshire Really Have the “Smartest” Population?

That conclusion goes beyond what the table can establish.

The estimates depend partly on literacy, numeracy, school achievement, and statistical modeling. Those outcomes are affected by education, age structure, income, migration, health, language, and who is represented in the source data. They also capture more learned knowledge than a purely nonverbal reasoning test would.

A ranking difference of a few tenths of a point should therefore not be treated like a precise contest. New Hampshire at 103.2 and Massachusetts at 103.1 are effectively neighbors in this dataset.

The same issue appears internationally. Our Average IQ by Country guide shows how dramatically rankings can change when the source changes, while Which Country Has the Highest Average IQ? focuses on why different datasets produce different “winners.”

Why State Averages Do Not Describe Individuals

Every state contains an enormous range of individual ability. A person in the lowest-ranked state can score far above a person in the highest-ranked state, and vice versa.

This is an example of the ecological fallacy: a relationship observed for geographic averages does not automatically apply to individual people. A state-level number can be useful for studying population patterns, but it should never be used as a shortcut for estimating someone’s intelligence.

If you want the scale itself explained, see our Average IQ guide and IQ Score Chart.

Could State IQ Rankings Change?

Yes. State populations change, educational performance changes, and the assessments used to build these estimates change. The 2022 study was created precisely because the previous widely used estimates were already 16 years old.

That is also why the latest NAEP or PIAAC results should not simply be relabeled as “new IQ scores.” Producing an updated IQ-style state estimate requires a stated method for combining and standardizing those underlying measures.

Questions of measurement matter even more when comparing culturally or linguistically different groups. Cognitive Train’s guide to cultural bias in IQ tests explains how researchers examine whether tests function comparably across populations.

Check Your Own Approximate IQ

Your state’s estimated average is not your score. If you are curious about your own reasoning profile, Cognitive Train’s IQ-Style Test provides an approximate estimate across several reasoning-related abilities.

🧠 Check Your Approximate IQ

For more targeted measures, browse Cognitive Train’s brain tests and cognitive assessments.

The Bottom Line

Using the 2022 peer-reviewed update, New Hampshire ranks first at 103.2, Massachusetts second at 103.1, and Minnesota third at 102.9; New Mexico ranks 50th at 95.0. These are state-level cognitive estimates derived from PIAAC and NAEP data, not direct population-wide IQ measurements.

If you see Massachusetts listed at 104.3 on a page labeled “2026,” you are probably looking at the older McDaniel 2006 estimate. Knowing the source is more important than memorizing the rank.

Explore Cognitive Train’s guide to what IQ actually measures or use our brain training and cognitive training tools to practice specific cognitive abilities directly.