The Global Bell Curve

What does it look like?

One can estimate the number of people above a certain threshold of intelligence by assuming normality and a given mean and standard deviation. Generally, nations/races have roughly equivalent standard deviations in intelligence — differences in standard deviations between groups on the same test tend to be small, and sometimes do not even replicate in other assessments, so assuming a blanket standard deviation of 15 for every country would roughly be congruent with reality.

To do this, I used the national IQs I calculated by averaging the various national IQ/scholastic ability datasets I could access.

This is the current world IQ distribution, based on the UN’s 2023 population figures:

mean = 85.1, SD = 19.1

Percentage in each IQ category:

half of the 100,000 160+s are Chinese. The same goes for the ranges 145-160 and 130-145.