Is 117 a Good IQ Score?

What an IQ of 117 means, where it ranks, and what it tells you about cognitive ability.

117

IQ Score

87th

Percentile

High Average

Classification

1 in 8

Rarity

What an IQ of 117 means

An IQ of 117 sits at the 87th percentile. Roughly 1 in 8 people score 117 or above. One standard deviation above the population mean is IQ 115 — you are 2 points above it. Research consistently shows this range achieves strong academic and professional outcomes in analytical and managerial roles.

IQ 117 in context

IQ 117 sits 2 points above the one-standard-deviation mark of 115 and 13 points below the Mensa threshold at IQ 130. At the 87th percentile, roughly 1 in 8 people score here or above. In large-scale occupational research, IQ 117 sits at the level where analytical and supervisory roles are reliably within reach. The 17-point advantage over the population mean is meaningful in complex cognitive tasks but not so large as to create the social friction sometimes associated with scores at the extreme upper tail. Research on high-performing teams consistently shows that IQ 117 individuals — particularly those high in conscientiousness — tend to outperform higher-scoring counterparts who rely on ability alone.

Frequently asked questions

Is 117 a good IQ score?

Yes. IQ 117 is in the High Average range at the 87th percentile. Roughly 1 in 8 people score 117 or above. One standard deviation above the population mean is IQ 115 — 2 points above it.

What percentile is an IQ of 117?

The 87th percentile. That means 87% of the population scores at or below 117. About 1 in 8 people score 117 or above — the top 13% of the population. The population mean is 100 with a standard deviation of 15.

What careers are associated with an IQ of 117?

Strong overlap with university graduates and analytical professionals. Engineering, medicine, law, teaching, and senior management all draw heavily from the 115–120 range. Our data on average IQ by profession puts IQ 117 in the upper bracket of the graduate mainstream.

Can you improve an IQ of 117?

Yes. IQ scores respond to environmental changes, particularly before age 25. Sleep quality has the single largest short-term effect on fluid intelligence. Nutrition, stress reduction, and working memory training also have evidence behind them. Gains of 5–10 points are realistic with sustained effort.

Careers that commonly score in this range

Nurse (RN)Studies place RN mean around 112–116

Manager / ExecutiveMid-level and senior management clusters here

Teacher (Secondary)Subject-specialist secondary teachers average ~110–115

JournalistInvestigative and broadsheet press skew toward this range

Notable people reportedly in this range

All figures are estimates or reported by third-party sources — none are clinically verified.

John F. Kennedy

35th US President — reportedly scored approximately 119 on Navy Officer Candidate School aptitude tests during WWII, a figure independently cited in multiple presidential biographies as the closest approximation to his IQ.

Richard Nixon

37th US President — IQ estimates vary widely in published sources (107 to 143). The most widely cited mid-range estimate from Simonton's historiometric analysis places him at approximately 110–115.

Lyndon B. Johnson

36th US President — Southwest Texas State University graduate and skilled legislative strategist. Simonton's historiometric analysis estimates his IQ at approximately 120–126, placing him solidly in the high-average range.

Bill Clinton

42nd US President, Oxford Rhodes Scholar, and Yale Law School graduate — IQ estimates range from 120 to 137 across published sources. Independent analyses using his SAT score place him at approximately 120–130.

From the IQScore blog

Further reading selected for this score range.

Average IQ by Profession →

How this range maps to career outcomes in the published data.

Working Memory and Intelligence →

The most trainable component of measured cognitive ability.

Fluid vs Crystallised Intelligence →

Two types of intelligence and what each one predicts.

Can You Improve Your IQ? →

What the evidence actually supports, and what it does not.