What was Isaac Newton’s IQ?
Estimated IQ 170–190: Cox’s 1926 ratings from his biography, with childhood rated lower.
Isaac Newton never took an IQ test (he died in 1727), so every Newton IQ figure is an estimate. The 190 that circulates is Catharine Cox’s 1926 corrected rating for his first 26 years, built from biographical ratings of 130 (to age 17) and 170 (to age 26), and the “190–200” on some lists adds a guess she made in one sentence.
Isaac Newton’s estimated IQ
- Cox (1926) rated Newton from biographical records: obtained 130 to age 17 and 170 to age 26, corrected to 150 and 190 for incomplete records (Table 12A).
- Admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge, in June 1661 as a subsizar; B.A. in 1665; Lucasian Professor of Mathematics from October 29, 1669, at 26.
- Developed the fundamentals of the calculus in 1665–67, then published the Principia (1687), with Edmond Halley’s encouragement and financial help, and the Opticks (1704).
- Warden of the Royal Mint from 1696, Master from Christmas Day 1699, and President of the Royal Society from 1703 until his death in 1727.
Cox scored what biographers wrote about a young Newton, with a reliability coefficient of .43 for his first 17 years and .60 for the years to 26, and she called her final correction “no more than an approximation to a true score.” Her childhood ratings (130 obtained, 150 corrected) sit below the 170–190 range used here, so no single figure for Newton is safe.
- Born
- January 4, 1643 (December 25, 1642 in the English calendar then in use), Woolsthorpe Manor, Lincolnshire
- Died
- March 31, 1727 (March 20 in the English calendar), London
- Field
- Mathematics, physics, optics, alchemy
- Education
- King’s School, Grantham; Trinity College, Cambridge (B.A. 1665, M.A. 1668)
- Known for
- Principia (1687), laws of motion and universal gravitation, calculus, Opticks (1704)
- Posts held
- Lucasian Professor from 1669; Warden (1696), then Master (1699–1727) of the Royal Mint; President of the Royal Society 1703–1727
- Cox (1926) ratings
- Obtained 130 (to age 17) and 170 (to age 26); corrected 150 and 190
- Nationality
- English
What an IQ of 170–190 actually means
Set the claim aside for a moment. If someone genuinely scored in this range, here is what that would represent.
Average is 100 by construction, and about two-thirds of people fall between 85 and 115. Take the test to place your own score on this scale.
| 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 Isaac Newton was
Newton was born at Woolsthorpe Manor, Lincolnshire, on January 4, 1643 (December 25, 1642 in the English calendar of the time), three months after his father’s death. He attended The King’s School in Grantham from about age 12 to 17, with a break when his mother took him home to farm, and Trinity College, Cambridge, admitted him in June 1661 as a subsizar, a student who paid his way by service. He won a scholarship in 1664 and took his B.A. in 1665. By most accounts he was an undistinguished undergraduate who taught himself mathematics, reading Descartes and Galileo alongside the Aristotle the curriculum required.
The Great Plague closed Cambridge in 1665, and Newton worked mostly at Woolsthorpe for two years: in 1665 he found the generalized binomial theorem and began the mathematics that became the calculus, and he experimented with a prism on the colors of light. John Conduitt, who married Newton’s niece, dated the thought that gravity might reach the Moon to 1666. Newton returned to Cambridge in April 1667, became a Fellow of Trinity that October, and in 1669 succeeded Isaac Barrow as Lucasian Professor at 26, the chair later held by Stephen Hawking. In August 1669 Barrow called Newton’s De analysi manuscript the work “of an extraordinary genius and proficiency in these things.”
The Principia appeared in 1687 with encouragement and financial help from Edmond Halley, and the Opticks in 1704; Newton issued revised editions of the Principia in 1713 and 1726. He moved to London for the Royal Mint in 1696, serving as Warden and, from Christmas Day 1699, as Master until his death, and as Warden and Master he prosecuted 28 coiners, among them William Chaloner, who was hanged. He was President of the Royal Society from 1703, was knighted by Queen Anne in April 1705 during a royal visit to Trinity College, and died on March 31, 1727 (March 20 in the English calendar), the first scientist buried in Westminster Abbey.
He also spent much of his time on alchemy and biblical chronology, most of it unpublished until long after his death, a part of his working life that the lists above leave out. The history of intelligence testing begins with Binet and Simon in 1905, 178 years after Newton’s death, which is why every figure here is a reading of the written record.
By Elora Mercer, Celebrity Research WriterFigures checked by Leon Falkner, Data & Research AnalystReviewed by Aarav Vardhan, Editor-in-Chief · Last reviewed October 2026
Isaac Newton: 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.
- 1643Born at Woolsthorpe Manor, Lincolnshire, on January 4 (December 25, 1642 in the English calendar), three months after his father’s death.
- 1661Admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge, as a subsizar; a scholarship follows in 1664.
- 1665–66Takes his B.A.; Cambridge closes for the Great Plague and Newton works mostly at Woolsthorpe on the calculus, on light and colors and on gravity. John Conduitt dates the apple thought to 1666.
- 1669Succeeds Isaac Barrow as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at 26.
- 1672Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
- 1687Publishes the Principia, with Edmond Halley’s encouragement and financial help.
- 1696Appointed Warden of the Royal Mint; becomes Master from Christmas Day 1699.
- 1703Elected President of the Royal Society, a post he holds until his death.
- 1704Publishes the Opticks.
- 1705Knighted by Queen Anne during a royal visit to Trinity College, Cambridge, in April.
- 1727Dies on March 31 (March 20 in the English calendar); the first scientist buried in Westminster Abbey.
Where the 190 figure came from
Following a claim back to its first appearance is the part almost nobody does — and it is what most people are actually asking.
Newton’s IQ of 190 comes from one printed table: Catharine Cox’s The Early Mental Traits of Three Hundred Geniuses (1926), which lists Newton in Table 12A with corrected ratings of 150 for his first 17 years and 190 for the years to age 26. Her raters first scored the biographical record, giving 130 and 170 with reliability coefficients of .43 and .60 (Table 37, p. 110), and the corrected figures add her adjustment for thin records. The 170 is therefore not a childhood rating: it covers the record to age 26, which takes in Trinity College, the B.A. in 1665, the plague years and the Lucasian chair in 1669.
The correction is Cox’s Formula a (p. 82): the obtained IQ plus (group mean − 100) × (1 − reliability of the record). For Newton, grouped with the other scientists (obtained group means 135 and 152), it gives 130 + 35 × .57 ≈ 150 and 170 + 52 × .40 ≈ 191, in line with the printed 150 and 190. Cox expressed every rating as a ratio IQ, mental age over chronological age, and called the final correction “no more than an approximation to a true score.” The error runs one way: the sourced ratings, 130 and 170, are lower than the figure that circulates.
The “190–200” printed by Reader’s Digest and the “around 190” on All That’s Interesting name no test and no study. A 200 for Newton does appear once in Cox’s own text: her conclusions (p. 217) list him among fourteen subjects who “probably rated at 200 IQ or even higher,” a judgment about what the records would show if all had survived, not a rating in any table. She used the IQ “without the limitation which, in testing practice, impairs its usefulness in the upper mental ages,” so her figures are theoretical values, not scores any test could report (see the highest IQ score a test can report). Where celebrity IQ numbers come from shows the same pattern for other names.
What Cox’s raters read for his first 17 years was mixed. Newton’s models, water clocks, sundials and kites pointed up, but by his own later account, as she records it, he stood “very low in the school” until a fight with a classmate drove him to the top place, and she marked the evidence of precocity “contradictory.” The same method rates Leibniz higher at both ages (185 and 190 obtained, on a record graded .75) than Newton’s 130 and 170.
How we read a number →Ratings to age 17 (AI) and age 26 (AII) with reliability coefficients of .43 and .60. Formula a (p. 82) produces the corrected values; p. 217 lists Newton among subjects who “probably rated at 200 IQ or even higher.”
Describes Cox’s volume as a retrospective study of 301 eminent creators and leaders that used historiometric methods to estimate their IQs, and notes that the intellectually gifted children and the historic geniuses are not comparable.
Dates for Trinity (June 1661), the B.A. (1665), the Lucasian chair (October 29, 1669), the Royal Society (1672), the Mint (1696), the presidency (1703), the Opticks (1704), the knighthood (1705) and his death (March 1727).
Warden of the Mint in spring 1696; Master with effect from Christmas Day 1699, until his death in March 1727.
Stukeley’s 1752 memoir of Newton records him recalling that the notion of gravitation came into his mind “occasion’d by the fall of an apple”; the account is held in the Society’s archive.
Source for the early schooling, the 1661–69 Cambridge years, Halley’s help with the Principia, the Mint prosecutions, the knighthood and the burial. Stukeley’s conversation is dated April 15, 1726, Kensington.
Gives the letter to Robert Hooke as February 5, 1675/76 and quotes the “shoulders of giants” sentence.
Heading “Isaac Newton: IQ 190–200.” The entry names no test, study or source.
Says historians have estimated Newton’s IQ “around 190.” No source is named.
Newton died in 1727. Binet and Simon published the first intelligence scale in 1905, and William Stern coined the term “IQ” in 1912 (Wikipedia, Intelligence quotient). No page cites a test.
The sources behind our estimate
The figures that circulate for Isaac Newton, what we were able to confirm, and where the two diverge.
Newton’s IQ is given as 190 or 190–200 on popular lists: Reader’s Digest prints “IQ 190–200” and All That’s Interesting says historians put it “around 190,” and neither cites a test or a source.
Newton died in 1727, 178 years before the first intelligence scale (Binet and Simon, 1905). The only systematic ratings are Catharine Cox’s: for each of her 301 subjects she scored the biographical record to age 17 and to age 26 and expressed the result as a ratio IQ, with a reliability coefficient for each. For Newton she printed 130 and 170 as obtained ratings (reliability .43 and .60) and 150 and 190 as corrected ones. Neither list above mentions her.
The 190 is Cox’s corrected rating for the years to age 26; the 200 comes from one sentence in her conclusions that lists Newton among subjects who “probably rated at 200 IQ or even higher.” Her obtained ratings, 130 and 170, lie below every figure in the spread, so the circulating numbers run higher than the record they rest on.
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.
Isaac Newton — frequently asked
What is Isaac Newton’s IQ?
Isaac Newton’s IQ is not known: he never took a test, and the 190 that circulates is Catharine Cox’s 1926 estimate from his biography, her corrected rating for the years to age 26. This site’s estimated range for Newton is 170–190.
How high was Newton’s estimated IQ?
Cox rated Newton 130 for his first 17 years and 170 to age 26, then corrected those to 150 and 190 for incomplete records. The adult figures rest on the better record (reliability .60 against .43), so this site’s range follows them and the childhood ratings stay lower.
Did Isaac Newton take an IQ test?
No. Newton died in 1727, and the first intelligence scale, by Alfred Binet and Théodore Simon, appeared in 1905; William Stern coined the term “IQ” in 1912. Every IQ figure for Newton is a retrospective rating from the written record, not a test result.
Why do some lists say Newton’s IQ is 190–200?
Reader’s Digest prints “IQ 190–200” and All That’s Interesting says “around 190,” and neither names a test. The 190 matches Cox’s corrected rating. Cox’s conclusions also say Newton “probably rated at 200 IQ or even higher,” a conjecture about his true score, not a rating in any of her tables.
Who had the higher IQ, Newton or Einstein?
Neither has a test score, and the ranges overlap: this site estimates Newton at 170–190 and Albert Einstein at 160–180. Cox’s study covered people born between 1450 and 1850, so Einstein, born in 1879, has no Cox rating to compare.
Did Isaac Newton fail in school?
No. By his own later account, as Cox records it, Newton stood very low at the Grantham school until a fight with a classmate pushed him to the top place. His mother had taken him home to farm by October 1659, and he returned to school before Trinity College, Cambridge, admitted him in June 1661.
Did Newton really discover gravity under an apple tree?
Newton told the story himself. William Stukeley recorded him saying, over tea under apple trees in Kensington on April 15, 1726, that the notion of gravitation had come to him “occasion’d by the fall of an apple”; John Conduitt dated it to 1666. Neither says an apple hit him, and the Principia followed in 1687.
What did Newton say about his own intellect?
In a letter to Robert Hooke dated February 5, 1675/76, Newton wrote “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” The image is older than Newton, traced to the 12th century, and historians read it either as modesty or as a barb aimed at Hooke.
How does my IQ compare with Isaac Newton?
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 historical profiles, starting with Leonardo da Vinci.
- Take the 30-question IQ test — get a measured score and percentile of your own
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- 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 historical profiles — same field, same method
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Portrait by Justus Sustermans (1636), via Wikimedia Commons, public domain. · Portrait by Jacques-Louis David (1812), via Wikimedia Commons, public domain. · Photograph by Marie-Lan Nguyen, public domain. Background removed for the portrait above.
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