Who Was the Smartest American President?

It’s common knowledge that being a mom is the hardest job in the world, right? But surely close behind is the job of the President of the United States. And on the whole, the people who have filled that job have done an effective job of it. After all, we’ve grown from a fairly small, dis-unified, and underdeveloped agricultural country into the wealthiest, most technologically advanced, and militarily powerful society the world has ever known. Keeping all of that moving in a positive direction has got to be like trying to steer a rocket.

Some of our presidents have been gifted with well above-average intelligence for the job. Others . . . not so much. But in either case, they’ve generally served quite capably, especially when assisted by a knowledgeable Cabinet. We’ve grouped all the U.S. presidents by their estimated IQs—a tricky calculation that should be taken with more than a little grain of salt. But you can use this as a starting point to think about what makes Presidents, and the rest of us, perceived as smart, or . . . the alternative. 

What’s Involved in IQ Tests?

Formal IQ (Intelligence Quotient) tests were first developed in France in 1905 as a tool to identify students who might need more help academically. Later, the French test was developed further in the United States. Common IQ tests used today include the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale and the Stanford Binet test. IQ tests use puzzles, problem-solving, visualization, and memory exercises to measure verbal comprehension, logical and spatial reasoning, mathematical ability, and memory and processing speed.

How Accurate Are IQ Tests?

IQ tests are pretty good at identifying problem-solving ability and can help predict academic performance where those skills are emphasized. They can also give a general, broad sense of one’s intelligence. Educators and psychologists find them useful in their work and research. However, they focus on a narrow set of skills and are blind to creativity, social skills, and emotional intelligence, which are all highly important to productivity and success. Any kind of standardized test like this is also susceptible to bias, such as cultural differences, test familiarity, and environmental factors at the time the test was taken. 

How Can Presidents’ IQs be Assessed?

We do not have formal IQ test results for any U.S. president, but some scholars have made an attempt to rank them based on historical records of things they said and did, their writings, examples of decision-making skills, and achievements. Of course, it’s always more than possible that some presidents made it through college by virtue of connections or something else other than academic prowess, hired ghostwriters for their books, and made policy decisions based on the advice of people brighter than they were. Which, when you think about it, might show a different kind of intelligence: the ability to recognize deficits and identify other resources and people who can fill in those gaps. And the ability to motivate those people to do what you want and keep you moving toward your goals.

So, estimates of the IQs of presidents are at best educated guesses, and we have to remember that the concept of intelligence itself can be multifaceted.

How We Got Our List

We’ve grouped the presidents based on their estimated IQs in a study by Dean Keith Simonton of U.C. Davis published in the journal Political Psychology in 2006. He provides several IQ estimates for each, based on different approaches. We have provided the range from lowest to highest estimated IQ but have ranked presidents based on the lowest, most conservative IQ estimates. 

Simonton’s work goes up only through George W. Bush. We have perused the internet and found such a wide range of estimates for Presidents Obama, Trump, and Biden that there is little doubt they are heavily affected by partisan bias. So we decided to keep them in a separate list of their own at the end with an admittedly scientifically questionable intelligence estimate range for each. Since you have lived during these presidencies you can consider yourself what you think their intelligence level might be, based on their backgrounds, speaking and writing abilities, and approaches to policymaking, whether you agree with their policies or not. 

How do Presidential IQs Compare to Average Americans?

The average American’s IQ score is in the range of 90-110. Anything above that is pretty smart, but only about 2% of the population is at 130+. And if you reach 140 or higher, well, that’s outright genius level. And there’s a pretty good chance at least a couple of our early presidents may have been there. As for the rest of the list, researchers think most if not all were at least “above average.”

The Top 5 (Pre-2010)

John Quincy Adams: 165-175

Thomas Jefferson: 145-160

John F. Kennedy: 139-160

Bill Clinton: 136-159

Woodrow Wilson: 133-155

IQ 127-130 (Pre-2010)

Jimmy Carter: 130-157

Theodore Roosevelt: 130-153

Chester Arthur: 129-152

James Garfield: 129-152

Franklin Roosevelt: 127-151

IQ 121-125 (Pre-2010)

Abraham Lincoln: 125-150

George Washington: 125-140

John Tyler: 123-148

Franklin Pierce: 121-147

Millard Fillmore: 121-149

IQ 119-120 (Pre-2010)

James Madison: 120-160

John Adams: 120-155

Rutherford B. Hayes: 120-146

W. Harrison: 120-146

Martin Van Buren: 119-146

Richard Nixon: 119-143

IQ 117-118 (Pre-2010)

Benjamin Harrison 118-145

Ronald Reagan 118-142

Herbert Hoover 118-142

Dwight D. Eisenhower 117-145

Grover Cleveland 117-144

G.H.W. Bush 117-143

IQ 115-116 (Pre-2010)

William McKinley 116-143

Harry Truman 116-140

James Polk 116-143

Lyndon Johnson 115-141

William Howard Taft 115-140

IQ 111-113 (Pre-2010)

Gerald Ford 113-140

James Buchanan 112-140

Calvin Coolidge 111-142

Andrew Johnson 111-140

Zachary Taylor 111-140

G.W. Bush 111-139

IQ 108-110 (Pre-2010)

Andrew Jackson 110-145

Ulysses S. Grant 110-130

James Monroe 109-138

Warren G. Harding 108-140

What About The Most Recent Presidents?

Barack Obama 130-140 (IQ estimates ranging from “above average” to “superior.”)

Donald Trump 115-156 (IQ estimates ranging from “above average” to “genius.”) 

Joe Biden 114-128 (IQ estimates ranging from “above average” to “superior.”)

Our Humble Verdict

So our humble verdict is that anyone who manages to rise to the office of President of the United States has to have above average intelligence, because it is not an easy or “average” thing to do. Beyond that, it’s possible some early founding fathers were at “genius” level based on their wide mastery of languages, different academic domains, earning higher degrees from competitive institutions, and authoring numerous books, not just one or two ghostwritten autobiographies. It’s likely we haven’t had any true geniuses in office for a long time. One could almost reach the conclusion that a true genius knows better than to take this supremely difficult and thankless job! But that’s just the sort of thing a person of average intelligence might think, so what do we know?

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