What is Gavin Newsom’s IQ?
A self-reported 960 on the 1980s SAT beat the 906 average by 54 points, but it is not an IQ: the Gavin Newsom IQ record.
No IQ test result has ever been published for Gavin Newsom, so his IQ is not on record; the one test score tied to him is a 960 on the SAT that he has stated himself, with no score report released. That score, a 1989 Santa Clara University degree and a career from PlumpJack to the governor’s office support an estimated IQ of about 105–125.
Gavin Newsom’s estimated IQ
- A self-reported SAT score of 960 out of 1600: CalMatters reported it on April 4, 2024, and Newsom called himself “a 960 SAT guy” in Atlanta on February 22, 2026 (Fox News, February 23, 2026). No score report has been published. College-bound seniors in the class of 1985 averaged 906 (verbal 431, mathematics 475), so 960 was 54 points above the average (National Center for Education Statistics).
- A Bachelor of Science in political science from Santa Clara University, 1989, entered in the fall of 1985 on a partial baseball scholarship (Santa Clara Magazine, March 12, 2004; CalMatters, April 4, 2024; Wikipedia).
- A retail wine shop that grew into the PlumpJack Group, whose own site dates its beginnings to 1992 (Governor’s office; PlumpJack).
- Public office from 1996: San Francisco’s Parking and Traffic Commission, a vacant seat on the Board of Supervisors in 1997, Mayor of San Francisco from January 2004 to January 2011 and Lieutenant Governor of California from January 2011 to January 7, 2019 (Santa Clara Magazine; Governor’s office; Lieutenant Governor’s office; Wikipedia).
- Governor of California since January 7, 2019, the 40th, and still in office as of October 2026: evidence of a long public career, not of a test score (National Governors Association; Governor’s office).
The 960 is Newsom’s own account, with no score report, test date or section scores published, and the SAT is an aptitude test, not an IQ test: it correlates between roughly .5 and .8 with measures of general cognitive ability, depending on the sample, so any conversion carries a wide margin of error. He has also said he lives with dyslexia, which the Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity says occurs at all levels of intelligence; that is one reason the band is kept wide on purpose, and it is a judgment from a recalled score and a public record, not a measurement.
- Born
- October 10, 1967, San Francisco, California
- Education
- Redwood High School, Larkspur, California (1985); Santa Clara University, B.S. in political science (1989)
- Business
- Started a retail wine shop that grew into the PlumpJack Group; PlumpJack dates its beginnings to 1992
- Offices before 2019
- San Francisco Board of Supervisors (from 1997); Mayor of San Francisco (January 2004 to January 2011); Lieutenant Governor of California (January 2011 to January 7, 2019)
- Current office
- 40th Governor of California since January 7, 2019; in office as of October 2026
- Books
- Citizenville (2013, with Lisa Dickey); Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery (February 24, 2026)
- Test on record
- No IQ test result published; an SAT score of 960 out of 1600 is self-reported (CalMatters, April 4, 2024; Fox News, February 23, 2026), with no score report published
- Estimated range here
- 105–125 (test-anchored estimate, SAT-derived)
What an IQ of 105–125 actually means
Set the claim aside for a moment. If someone genuinely scored in this range, here is what that would represent.
| Score range | Classification | Share of people | What it indicates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 85 – 114 | Average | ~68% | The range most people fall into. |
| 115 – 129 | Above average | ~13.6% | Roughly one person in seven. |
| 130 – 144 | Gifted | ~2% | The threshold most high-IQ societies use. |
| Above 144 | Highly gifted | ~0.1% | Figures above this range are extrapolated from the curve rather than measured. |
Percentages are approximate and describe a normal distribution. The same number means different things on tests with different standard deviations.
Thirty questions gives you a measured position on this exact scale — your score, your percentile and the ability breakdown behind it.
Find out in 30 minutes →Who Gavin Newsom is
On Gavin Newsom’s education and IQ, the record is specific about schools and silent on any test. Gavin Christopher Newsom was born on October 10, 1967, in San Francisco, attended Redwood High School in Larkspur, California, and graduated in 1985. He entered Santa Clara University that fall on a partial baseball scholarship and graduated in 1989 with a Bachelor of Science in political science; Santa Clara Magazine calls him a 1989 graduate and a former political science major, and the university lists him among its alumni as Gavin Newsom ’89. No graduate degree appears in the sources checked, and none of the official biographies gives an IQ score, an SAT score, a grade average or a class rank.
After college Newsom started a retail wine shop that grew into the PlumpJack Group, whose own site dates its beginnings to 1992 and a small shop selling wines from across the world. His public career began in 1996, when he was appointed to San Francisco’s Parking and Traffic Commission; in 1997 he was appointed to a vacant seat on the Board of Supervisors, and in December 2003 he was elected mayor of San Francisco. He took office in January 2004 and served until January 2011, when he became Lieutenant Governor of California; that office passed to Eleni Kounalakis on January 7, 2019.
Newsom has been Governor of California since January 7, 2019, the 40th person to hold the office. As of October 2026 he is in office: the National Governors Association lists him as current, and the Governor’s newsroom carried announcements headed “Governor Newsom” dated October 9, 2026. His books are Citizenville: How to Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government (2013, written with Lisa Dickey) and the memoir Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery (Penguin, February 24, 2026).
As of October 2026 the documented record consists of schools, a degree, a business, offices, dates and books, and no test. The only test-related number tied to him is the SAT score he has stated himself, and the only way to read it is against the averages of its own year.
By Elora Mercer, Celebrity Research WriterFigures checked by Leon Falkner, Data & Research AnalystReviewed by Aarav Vardhan, Editor-in-Chief · Last reviewed August 2026
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Gavin Newsom: the documented record
The estimate above rests on this record. Every entry here is a matter of public fact, which is more than can be said for the number itself.
- 1967Born October 10 in San Francisco.
- 1985Graduates from Redwood High School in Larkspur and enters Santa Clara University that fall on a partial baseball scholarship.
- 1989Graduates from Santa Clara University with a degree in political science.
- 1992PlumpJack dates its beginnings to this year, a small shop selling wines from across the world.
- 1997Appointed to a vacant seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, after an appointment to the city’s Parking and Traffic Commission in 1996.
- 2004Takes office as Mayor of San Francisco in January, after his election in December 2003.
- 2011Becomes Lieutenant Governor of California in January.
- 2019Becomes Governor of California on January 7.
- 2024CalMatters reports on April 4 a “reported SAT score of 960 out of 1600,” naming no source.
- 2026Calls himself “a 960 SAT guy” in Atlanta on February 22; publishes Young Man in a Hurry on February 24.
Why no figure circulates
Following a claim back to its first appearance is the part almost nobody does — and it is what most people are actually asking.
Gavin Newsom’s IQ score is not on record: no IQ test result has been published for him, so any estimate starts from what he has said and what is documented. The one test score tied to him is a 960 on the SAT. CalMatters described a “reported SAT score of 960 out of 1600” on April 4, 2024, without naming a source, and Newsom stated the number himself in Atlanta on February 22, 2026, calling himself “a 960 SAT guy” (Fox News, February 23, 2026). No score report, test date or section scores have been published, so the 960 is self-reported. With a 1989 Santa Clara University degree and a public career that began in 1996, it supports an estimated IQ of about 105–125.
No remark by Newsom about an IQ test or an IQ score turned up in the sources checked. The nearest thing to a Gavin Newsom IQ quote or comment is the Atlanta remark about the SAT and a second one in the same conversation about dyslexia: “I haven’t overcome dyslexia, I’m living with it” (Fox News, February 23, 2026). Dyslexia is a difficulty with reading, not a measure of intelligence; the Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity says it occurs at all levels of intelligence, and how dyslexia relates to IQ is covered separately. Opinions about someone’s intelligence are not test results. How unsourced numbers usually arise is covered in where celebrity IQ numbers come from.
A Gavin Newsom SAT score of 960 has to be read on the scale of its day. In the mid-1980s each part of the SAT ran from 200 to 800, a total of 1600, and college-bound seniors in the class of 1985 averaged 906 (verbal 431, mathematics 475), according to the National Center for Education Statistics. No test date has been published; the averages for the years either side, 897 in 1983–84 and 906 in 1985–86, are within nine points. The same tables restate the 1985 average on the recentered scale in use since the mid-1990s as 1,009 (509 and 500), so a 960 from the 1980s was about 54 points above its cohort’s average and is not the same number as a 960 today (for current averages, see SAT scores for the class of 2026). Converting any SAT score to an IQ is crude even when the score is documented: Frey and Detterman (2004) found a correlation of .82 between the SAT and a general-ability measure in the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, and .483 (.72 after correcting for restricted range) with Raven’s matrices in 104 undergraduates (see how SAT scores convert to IQ estimates).
Among this site’s politics profiles, the record places the Gavin Newsom IQ level below the 120–135 given to Kamala Harris, who was San Francisco’s district attorney while he was mayor and whose record includes a law degree, and overlapping the 110–130 given to George W. Bush, whose profile also cites a reported SAT score. Another California governor with a profile here is Arnold Schwarzenegger, the 38th; Newsom is the 40th. A midpoint near 115 is what an IQ of 115 means: above the population average of 100. But degrees and offices are achievement records, not IQ tests: they show sustained work and opportunity as much as reasoning ability, and the same record would fit scores somewhat above and below this band.
How we read a number →The biography says he was born in 1967 in San Francisco, attended Redwood High School and later Santa Clara University, started a retail wine shop that grew into the PlumpJack Group, and is California’s 40th Governor. The NGA lists his terms from January 7, 2019 and him as current; the newsroom carried items dated October 9, 2026 headed “Governor Newsom”; the Lieutenant Governor’s page records Eleni Kounalakis sworn in as his successor on January 7, 2019. None gives an IQ, an SAT score or a class rank.
The magazine calls him a 1989 graduate and a former political science major, appointed to the Parking and Traffic Commission in 1996 and in 1997 to a vacant seat on the Board of Supervisors, and elected mayor in December 2003. The alumni page lists him as Gavin Newsom ’89; the department page says it offers the bachelor of science in political science. No IQ, SAT score or class rank appears on the magazine page.
Redwood High School gives its address as 395 Doherty Drive, Larkspur, California. PlumpJack says its journey began in 1992 with a small shop offering wines from across the world; it does not name Newsom, so the link between him and the shop rests on the Governor’s biography.
Newsom graduated from Redwood High School in 1985 and was a freshman at Santa Clara in the fall of 1985; a spokesperson confirmed a partial baseball scholarship. The article describes his “reported SAT score of 960 out of 1600” and names no source for it. It is the earliest page found that prints the 960.
Quotes Newsom on Sunday, February 22, 2026: “a 960 SAT guy” and “I haven’t overcome dyslexia, I’m living with it.” It reports no score report, test date or section scores. It cites NCES data for a 1980s average SAT score of “around 900.” Used only for his own words.
College-bound seniors averaged 431 verbal and 475 mathematics on the original scale in 1984–85 (1983–84: 426 and 471; 1985–86: 431 and 475); each part ranged from 200 to 800. The 2004 table restates 1984–85 on the recentered scale as 509 verbal and 500 mathematics.
Abstract checked in the Crossref record: the SAT correlated .82 (.86 corrected for nonlinearity) with a general-ability measure drawn from the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery in 917 participants of the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, and .483 (.72 corrected for restricted range) with Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices in 104 undergraduates.
States that dyslexia occurs at all levels of intelligence and defines it as an unexpected difficulty in reading for a person who has the intelligence to be a much better reader.
Birth on October 10, 1967; Wikidata gives the birth name Gavin Christopher Newsom; Bachelor of Science in political science, 1989; Mayor of San Francisco from January 8, 2004 to January 10, 2011; Lieutenant Governor from January 10, 2011 to January 7, 2019; Governor from January 7, 2019, the 40th, after Arnold Schwarzenegger (38th) and Jerry Brown (39th); Citizenville (2013, with Lisa Dickey). The Google Books record gives February 24, 2026 for Young Man in a Hurry. Wikidata describes him as “40th governor of California since 2019.”
Looked for an IQ, SAT or class-rank record on the Governor’s, NGA, Santa Clara and school pages above and for an IQ entry on sociosite.net, scientific.place and celebrityiqs.com, whose pages opened for this profile carry no entry for him. The only test-related number found is the SAT score he has stated himself; the institutional biographies record schools, offices and dates only.
The sources behind our estimate
The figures that circulate for Gavin Newsom, what we were able to confirm, and where the two diverge.
No sourced IQ figure circulates for Gavin Newsom. The one number tied to him is an SAT score he stated himself: CalMatters described a reported 960 out of 1600 on April 4, 2024, and he called himself “a 960 SAT guy” in Atlanta on February 22, 2026, as Fox News reported on February 23. Searches such as “Gavin Newsom IQ” mostly turn up pages about that remark, which concerns the SAT, not an IQ test.
No published IQ test result exists for Gavin Newsom. The 960 rests on his own statement and on an earlier CalMatters mention that names no source; no score report, test date or section scores have been published, and the Governor’s office, the National Governors Association and Santa Clara University give no IQ, SAT score, grade average or class rank for him. The pages of sociosite.net, scientific.place and celebrityiqs.com opened for this profile contain no entry for him. The 960 also needs its date: on the 1980s scale the national average was 906, on today’s recentered scale the same year’s average works out at 1,009, and the two cannot be compared.
There is no circulating IQ figure to set against this range, so the spread is only the width of the estimate. It is 20 points wide on purpose: a self-reported score converted from a test that correlates between roughly .5 and .8 with general cognitive ability cannot support a narrower band, and the 960 itself is not on the IQ scale.
Want a number that does hold up? Every figure on this page is somebody’s claim. Take the 30-question test and get a percentile you can check rather than a figure you have to trust.
Gavin Newsom — frequently asked
What is Gavin Newsom’s IQ?
No IQ test result has been published for Gavin Newsom, so his IQ is not on record. The one test score tied to him is a self-reported 960 on the SAT; with his 1989 Santa Clara University degree and a career from PlumpJack to the governor’s office, it supports an estimated IQ of about 105–125.
Did Gavin Newsom take an IQ test?
No IQ test result for Gavin Newsom appears in any source checked for this profile as of October 2026. The test he has talked about is the SAT, which is not an IQ test, and no score report, test date or section scores have been published.
What was Gavin Newsom’s SAT score?
Gavin Newsom has described himself as “a 960 SAT guy” (Fox News, February 23, 2026), and CalMatters reported a score of 960 out of 1600 on April 4, 2024. It is self-reported; no score report has been published. The 1984–85 national average was 906, so 960 was 54 points above it.
Is there a Gavin Newsom IQ quote or comment?
No remark by Gavin Newsom about an IQ test or an IQ score turned up in the sources checked. His remarks concern the SAT, “a 960 SAT guy,” and dyslexia, “I haven’t overcome dyslexia, I’m living with it,” both in Atlanta on February 22, 2026 (Fox News). Neither is an IQ result.
Does a 960 SAT score from the 1980s convert to an IQ?
Only roughly. A 960 on the 1980s scale was 54 points above that period’s national average of 906, and because the SAT correlates between roughly .5 and .8 with general cognitive ability, a conversion carries a wide margin of error; this page uses 105–125. A 960 then is also not the same as a 960 on today’s recentered scale.
Is Gavin Newsom smart or a genius?
Genius is a label, not a score, and without a test result it cannot be assigned to anyone. Gavin Newsom’s documented record, a Santa Clara degree, a wine business that became the PlumpJack Group and nearly three decades in public office, supports an estimated IQ of about 105–125, above the population average of 100, and no more.
How does Gavin Newsom’s estimated IQ compare with other politicians on this site?
IQ Metrics estimates Gavin Newsom at 105–125, below the 120–135 given to Kamala Harris, who was San Francisco’s district attorney while he was mayor, and overlapping the 110–130 given to George W. Bush. All of these figures are estimates from public records and reported scores, not measurements.
How does my IQ compare with Gavin Newsom?
You can find out in about fifteen minutes. The IQ Metrics assessment is 30 questions, scored on the same 100-mean scale used throughout this page, so your result and the estimate above are at least expressed in the same units — one measured, one inferred. Once you have a number, the leaderboard shows where it would sit, and how we score and norm it explains the benchmarking.
Where does this estimate come from?
From the documented record rather than a test — the method is named above and set out in full under how we read a number. Compare it against the other politics profiles, starting with Thomas Jefferson.
- Take the 30-question IQ test — get a measured score and percentile of your own
- Average IQ by country — how the scale behaves across populations
- How IQ Metrics scores its assessment — the method behind our own number
- More on how IQ testing works — reliability, error and what a score can and cannot say
- More politics profiles — same field, same method
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Official portrait by Lawrence Jackson (The White House, 2021), public domain (U.S. federal government work). Background removed for the portrait above. · Official White House photograph by Emily J. Higgins (2026), public domain. Background removed for the portrait above. · Official portrait by the U.S. Department of State (January 2009), public domain. Background removed for the portrait above.
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