All 50 states, ranked.
Maybe you tune into Jeopardy every night at 7 p.m. on the dot. Maybe, all these years later, you’re still bragging about your SAT score. Or perhaps you’ve kept your kids’ “honor society” stickers on your car. No matter the reason, most of us are curious to learn how we and our loved ones rank in traditional intelligence. That’s why we dug through the data and found Wise Voter’s list of the smartest states in the U.S.
Wise Voter gathered some data that’s traditionally used to test intelligence in scholastic contexts. Mainly, they ranked each state by average I.Q. score. But Wise Voter also gathered average SAT scores, literacy rates, and numeracy rates.
Of course, we’ve all come a long way from believing our grades reflected our actual intelligence. There’s more than one way to measure intelligence. Many of us, after all, spend our whole lives perfecting a skill set outside of the classroom. And many more of us value kindness, good character, and emotional intelligence over anything else. No matter your talents, we all have smarts — this list doesn’t mean that some communities are unintelligent.
If your state ranks low, no one says the rating accurately reflects your community. After all, averaging the stats of a whole state can yield odd-sounding results. Plus, your state’s numeracy rate, for instance, may be higher than that of a state with a higher I.Q. average.
And unfortunately, we need to take I.Q. rankings with a grain of salt. This form of intelligence testing has a complicated history of being used to marginalize those who don’t ace the exam. And standardized tests also have a much-deserved bad rap for perpetuating biases against students of color. Also, testing doesn’t reflect the realities of serious challenges like the quality of education people receive. Really, our idea of intelligence is tangled up in some dense socioeconomic and racial issues. In moments like these, it’s helpful to use this insightful info as a jumping-off point for some bigger ideas.
Smartest States in the U.S., Ranked
| Rank | State | Average I.Q. | Literacy Rate | Numeracy Rate | Average SAT Score |
| 1 | Massachusetts | 104.3 | 82.7% | 74.9% | 1,029 |
| 2 | New Hampshire | 104.2 | 88.5% | 80.9% | 1,050 |
| 3 | North Dakota | 103.8 | 86.6% | 79% | 1,212 |
| 4 | Vermont | 103.8 | 87.2% | 79% | 1,095 |
| 5 | Minnesota | 103.7 | 86.9% | 79.6% | 1,225 |
| 6 | Maine | 103.4 | 86.6% | 77.1% | 1,081 |
| 7 | Montana | 103.4 | 86.9% | 77.3% | 1,206 |
| 8 | Iowa | 103.2 | 85.1% | 77% | 1,196 |
| 9 | Connecticut | 103.1 | 82.8% | 74% | 1,025 |
| 10 | Wisconsin | 102.9 | 84.7% | 75.8% | 1,252 |
| 11 | Kansas | 102.8 | 83.1% | 75% | 1,238 |
| 12 | New Jersey | 102.8 | 79.3% | 69.9% | 1,079 |
| 13 | South Dakota | 102.8 | 85.1% | 76.3% | 1,219 |
| 14 | Wyoming | 102.4 | 86.4% | 77.5% | 1,244 |
| 15 | Nebraska | 102.3 | 83.6% | 75.7% | 1,222 |
| 16 | Virginia | 101.9 | 81.2% | 71.6% | 1,124 |
| 17 | Washington | 101.9 | 83.9% | 76.5% | 1,096 |
| 18 | Ohio | 101.8 | 82.3% | 71.2% | 1,053 |
| 19 | Indiana | 101.7 | 81.3% | 70.5% | 1073 |
| 20 | Colorado | 101.6 | 83.4% | 75.2% | 1,021 |
| 21 | Pennsylvania | 101.5 | 81.9% | 71.3% | 1,091 |
| 22 | Idaho | 101.4 | 83.6% | 74.3% | 968 |
| 23 | Oregon | 101.2 | 83.2% | 75.3% | 1,143 |
| 24 | Utah | 101.1 | 85.5% | 77.7% | 1,233 |
| 25 | Missouri | 101 | 81.1% | 70.9% | 1,200 |
| 26 | New York | 100.7 | 75.6% | 65.3% | 1,067 |
| 27 | Michigan | 100.5 | 82.4% | 72% | 1,000 |
| 28 | Delaware | 100.4 | 79.7% | 68.8% | 968 |
| 29 | North Carolina | 100.2 | 78.7% | 67.1% | 1,136 |
| 30 | Texas | 100 | 71.8% | 61.5% | 1,001 |
| 31 | Illinois | 99.9 | 79.6% | 69.9% | 981 |
| 32 | Maryland | 99.7 | 80% | 69.8% | 1,075 |
| 33 | Rhode Island | 99.5 | 79.6% | 70.4% | 971 |
| 34 | Kentucky | 99.4 | 78.1% | 66.3% | 1,219 |
| 35 | Oklahoma | 99.3 | 79.9% | 69% | 951 |
| 36 | Alaska | 99 | 87.3% | 79.2% | 1,110 |
| 37 | West Virginia | 98.7 | 79.1% | 67.2% | 938 |
| 38 | Florida | 98.4 | 76.3% | 65.2% | 983 |
| 39 | South Carolina | 98.4 | 77.6% | 65% | 1,030 |
| 40 | Georgia | 98 | 76.4% | 63.4% | 1,060 |
| 41 | Tennessee | 97.7 | 78.3% | 66% | 1,200 |
| 42 | Arkansas | 97.5 | 76.9% | 64.3% | 1,191 |
| 43 | Arizona | 97.4 | 76.6% | 66.8% | 1,159 |
| 44 | Nevada | 96.5 | 74.7% | 63.5% | 1,172 |
| 45 | Alabama | 95.7 | 76.1% | 62.6% | 1,146 |
| 46 | New Mexico | 95.7 | 70.9% | 60.5% | 976 |
| 47 | Hawaii | 95.6 | 84.1% | 76.6% | 1,124 |
| 48 | California | 95.5 | 71.6% | 64% | 1,115 |
| 49 | Louisiana | 95.3 | 72.9% | 58.4% | 1,171 |
| 50 | Mississippi | 94.2 | 72% | 56.6% | 1,226 |
