Estimated White IQ Across the United States

IQ Map of White People in America

While data on IQ by U.S. state is available, I could not find any map showing White IQ differences by state. The closest I found was Cremieux’s post on the performance of various American ethnic groups on NAEP in 2022.

Unfortunately his screenshot is too poor to give a proper estimate and the data is lightly outdated and so I decided to look into the data myself, and thankfully my data is 2 years younger than his.

I acquired the data for 8th grader math performance in 2024 from a governmental website and then converted them into IQ.

The score means that I obtained are as follows:

• District of Columbia: 304

• DoDEA: 285

• Massachusetts: 276

• Connecticut: 275

• New Jersey: 275

• Hawaii: 274

• Colorado: 273

• Maryland: 272

• Georgia: 271

• Illinois: 270

• California: 269

• Indiana: 269

• Rhode Island: 269

• Arizona: 268

• Louisiana: 267

• Ohio: 267

• Texas: 267

• Washington: 267

• Minnesota: 266

• Pennsylvania: 266

• Tennessee: 266

• Utah: 266

• Virginia: 266

• Wisconsin: 266

• Idaho: 265

• Iowa: 265

• New York: 265

• South Dakota: 265

• Mississippi: 264

• Montana: 264

• New Hampshire: 264

• North Carolina: 264

• South Carolina: 264

• Florida: 263

• Kentucky: 263

• Nebraska: 263

• New Mexico: 263

• Wyoming: 263

• Alaska: 262

• Nevada: 262

• Arkansas: 261

• Missouri: 261

• Oregon: 261

• Alabama: 260

• Delaware: 260

• Kansas: 260

• Michigan: 260

• North Dakota: 260

• Vermont: 258

• Oklahoma: 257

• Maine: 256

• West Virginia: 248

The White American national average is: 266

On this basis, I equated a score of 266 to an IQ of 100 since that is the average White American IQ and my calculation formula is IQ = 100 + 2.66 × z where z = (score - dataset mean) / dataset SD. Here are the results:

District of Columbia: 112.5
DoDEA: 107.0
Massachusetts: 103.4
Connecticut: 103.0
New Jersey: 103.0
Hawaii: 102.6
Colorado: 102.3
Maryland: 101.9
Georgia: 101.5
Illinois: 101.1
California: 100.7
Indiana: 100.7
Rhode Island: 100.7
Arizona: 100.3
Louisiana: 99.9
Ohio: 99.9
Texas: 99.9
Washington: 99.9
Minnesota: 99.5
Pennsylvania: 99.5
Tennessee: 99.5
Utah: 99.5
Virginia: 99.5
Wisconsin: 99.5
Idaho: 99.1
Iowa: 99.1
New York: 99.1
South Dakota: 99.1
Mississippi: 98.7
Montana: 98.7
New Hampshire: 98.7
North Carolina: 98.7
South Carolina: 98.7
Florida: 98.3
Kentucky: 98.3
Nebraska: 98.3
New Mexico: 98.3
Wyoming: 98.3
Alaska: 97.9
Nevada: 97.9
Arkansas: 97.5
Missouri: 97.5
Oregon: 97.5
Alabama: 97.2
Delaware: 97.2
Kansas: 97.2
Michigan: 97.2
North Dakota: 97.2
Vermont: 96.4
Oklahoma: 96.0
Maine: 95.6
West Virginia: 92.3

Here is an IQ map of White Americans based on the earlier estimations.

And here is the IQ map of all races for comparison (not sure how accurate it is tbh).

As you can see, there are several notable discrepancies. Most notably, the Northeast and West Virginia are ranked much lower on my map than they are on other maps without a coherent methodology, given that even SAT scores poorly capture what I see online.

One curious finding is that my map correlates better with GDP per capita than the ones I found online. Just take a look at Maine, Vermont and West Virginia and tell me whether my map correlates with it better or whether you believe West Virginian IQ is around 98 as it is claimed online.

Nonetheless there is room for improvement as I looked only at the math scores, without combining it with reading scores. I also could not find a racial breakdown of SAT by race in each state either. If you want to design a better map, you know how to do it. You should at least start by averaging math and reading scores obtained from the same website.

Let me know if I should return to more data posting like I used to in the past or do you prefer my analysis of the current events.