What was Jimmy Carter’s IQ?
A decimal point makes 156.8 look measured; the number his own service record kept, 59th of 820 at Annapolis, actually is one.
No IQ test result has ever been published for Jimmy Carter, so a Jimmy Carter IQ score is not a documented number, only an estimate. What is on record — a Naval Academy class rank of 59th out of 820 and selection for Admiral Hyman Rickover’s nuclear submarine program — supports an estimated IQ of about 130–148, well under the 156.8 attributed to him.
Jimmy Carter’s estimated IQ
- Graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis in August 1946, 59th in a class of 820 midshipmen (the top ten percent) in a wartime-accelerated three-year program, after studying engineering at Georgia Southwestern College (1941–1942) and the Georgia Institute of Technology (1942–1943).
- In 1952 was interviewed and personally selected by Admiral Hyman G. Rickover for the Navy’s new nuclear submarine program, then served with the Naval Reactors Branch from November 1952 to March 1953 on the design and development of naval nuclear propulsion plants.
- Became engineering officer and senior officer of the precommissioning crew of USS Seawolf (SSN-575), the Navy’s second nuclear submarine, and took coursework in nuclear physics and reactor technology at Union College in Schenectady, New York, in spring 1953.
- After his father’s death in 1953 took over the family’s near-failing peanut-seed business in Plains, Georgia — net profit was $187 in 1954 — and built it into a prosperous operation by 1959, before winning a Georgia State Senate seat in 1962 and the governorship in 1970.
- Brokered the 1978 Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel as the 39th U.S. President and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for decades of subsequent work through the Carter Center.
A class rank inside an already competitive, nationally selected Naval Academy class is not a population-normed score, so turning 59th of 820 into a precise IQ the way a nationwide test allows is not possible; some accounts give the figure as 60th of 821, a one-place difference that does not change the picture. It is read here as strong but inexact evidence, alongside the Rickover selection and the peanut-business turnaround, none of which is a cognitive test. No IQ test result for Carter has ever been published, and the Nobel Peace Prize rewards decades of diplomatic persistence rather than measured ability.
- Born
- October 1, 1924, Plains, Georgia
- Died
- December 29, 2024, Plains, Georgia, at 100 — the longest-lived U.S. president
- Education
- Georgia Southwestern College (1941–1942); Georgia Institute of Technology (1942–1943); U.S. Naval Academy, B.S., 1946, 59th of 820
- Navy service
- Submarines USS Pomfret and USS K-1; chosen in 1952 by Admiral Hyman Rickover for the nuclear submarine program; engineering officer, USS Seawolf
- Documented tests
- No IQ test published; the Naval Academy class rank is a standing, not a score
- Public office
- Georgia State Senate, 1963–1967; 76th Governor of Georgia, 1971–1975; 39th U.S. President, 1977–1981
- Nobel Peace Prize
- 2002, for decades of conflict-resolution and human-rights work through the Carter Center
- Circulating IQ figure
- 156.8 (a 2006 historiometric estimate), against an estimated range here of 130–148
What an IQ of 130–148 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 Jimmy Carter was
James Earl Carter Jr. was born October 1, 1924, at the Wise Sanitarium in Plains, Georgia, and graduated from Plains High School in 1941 before studying engineering at Georgia Southwestern College in nearby Americus and transferring to the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta in 1942. He entered the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1943; the war had shortened the normal four-year course to three, and he graduated with a B.S. in August 1946, 59th in a class of 820, marrying Rosalynn Smith of Plains the same year. His first postings were aboard the diesel submarines USS Pomfret, from 1948, and USS K-1, formerly USS Barracuda, from 1951.
In 1952 Carter volunteered for Admiral Hyman Rickover’s nuclear submarine program and was interviewed and chosen for it; from November 1952 to March 1953 he worked with the Naval Reactors Branch on the design of naval nuclear propulsion plants, then became engineering officer and senior officer of the precommissioning crew for USS Seawolf (SSN-575), the Navy’s second nuclear submarine, built around an early sodium-cooled reactor design. Union College in Schenectady, New York, where Carter took non-credit classes in nuclear physics and reactor technology that spring, has since noted that press accounts often inflated this into “graduate nuclear physics,” which it was not. When his father, Earl Carter, died in July 1953, Carter resigned his commission and brought his family back to Plains to run the family’s peanut-seed and farm-supply business; net profit for the first year was $187, and by 1959 the business was prosperous.
Carter entered politics in 1962, running for a Georgia State Senate seat created by reapportionment; he lost a fraud-riddled Democratic primary in Quitman County, proved the fraud, and won the seat after a judge threw out the tainted votes. He served in the State Senate from 1963 to 1967, lost a first run for governor in 1966, and was elected the 76th Governor of Georgia in 1970, serving from 1971 to 1975; his inaugural address declared that “the time for racial discrimination is over.” He was elected the 39th President of the United States in 1976 and served from January 20, 1977, to January 20, 1981.
As president, Carter’s most lasting achievement was diplomatic: thirteen days of negotiation at Camp David in September 1978 between Egypt’s Anwar Sadat and Israel’s Menachem Begin produced the framework for the Egypt–Israel peace treaty the two countries signed on March 26, 1979. Out of office, he founded the Carter Center in 1982 and worked with Habitat for Humanity for decades, work that won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development” — the same prize Barack Obama received in 2009, less than a year into his own presidency. Rosalynn Carter, his wife of 77 years, died on November 19, 2023; Jimmy Carter died at their home in Plains on December 29, 2024, at 100, the longest-lived and first centenarian U.S. president.
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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Jimmy Carter: 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.
- 1924Born October 1 in Plains, Georgia.
- 1943–46Attends the U.S. Naval Academy after studying at Georgia Southwestern College and Georgia Tech; graduates in August 1946, 59th in a class of 820, and marries Rosalynn Smith.
- 1952–53Selected by Admiral Hyman Rickover for the nuclear submarine program; trains as engineering officer for USS Seawolf and studies nuclear physics and reactor technology at Union College.
- 1953Resigns his Navy commission after his father’s death and returns to Plains to run the family peanut business; net profit that first year is $187.
- 1962Wins a Georgia State Senate seat after proving his primary opponent’s victory relied on fraudulent votes in Quitman County.
- 1971–75Serves as the 76th Governor of Georgia.
- 1977–81Serves as the 39th President of the United States.
- 1978Brokers the Camp David Accords between Egypt’s Anwar Sadat and Israel’s Menachem Begin.
- 2002Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the Carter Center’s work.
- 2024Dies December 29 at his home in Plains at age 100, the longest-lived U.S. president.
Where the 156.8 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.
What is Jimmy Carter’s IQ? The number that answers the search today is 156.8, credited to a 2006 study by the psychologist Dean Keith Simonton and repeated by ranking sites such as Grunge, which states plainly that “Simonton postulates that Carter has an IQ of 156.8.” A decimal point makes a number look measured, and that is exactly how celebrity IQ numbers usually spread: a study produces an estimate, a listicle repeats it as fact, and the decimal survives the trip even though nothing about Carter was tested to one decimal place.
A second, older number tells a rougher story. In July 2001 a fabricated report from the “Lovenstein Institute” ranked twelve presidents by IQ, placing Bill Clinton first at 182 and James Earl Carter second at 175 — then added a claim found nowhere else in the list: “No president other than Carter has released his actual IQ (176). Note the institute measured him at 175.” No Lovenstein Institute has ever existed. The hoax was exposed within weeks, but The Guardian had already run it as fact on July 19, 2001, and a Spanish-language wire service revived the same numbers in 2007. For how the fabricated list compares with real presidential estimates, see US presidents ranked by IQ.
Simonton’s study is real, even where the number it produced is not a test score. Working from biographical accounts, it had raters score anonymized descriptions of each president on traits linked to intelligence, then factor-analyzed the results into an estimate for all 42 chief executives through George W. Bush; John Quincy Adams topped the list at 175, ahead of Thomas Jefferson at 160 and John F. Kennedy at 159.8, with Carter’s 156.8 placing him above Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt. Kennedy’s own page on this site estimates 119–135 instead, anchored to an actual school-administered score rather than Simonton’s historiometric method — a reminder that two respectable-looking numbers for two different presidents can rest on two very different kinds of evidence.
The steadiest anchor for Carter is not a rating at all but a record: 59th in a class of 820 at the U.S. Naval Academy, a rank he gave Admiral Hyman Rickover from memory when Rickover interviewed him for the nuclear submarine program in 1952 and asked whether he had always done his best. “No, sir,” Carter answered, “I didn’t always do my best.” Rickover picked him anyway, for a technical training track — reactor-design work with the Naval Reactors Branch, then nuclear physics and reactor-technology classes at Union College while he readied USS Seawolf for sea — that tested engineering knowledge, not general intelligence. A class rank inside an already-selected Naval Academy pool cannot be run through the population math a nationally normed test allows, and an extreme result on one measure tends to sit nearer the middle on another, which is why the estimate here stops at 148 rather than reaching for Simonton’s 156.8.
How we read a number →Confirms the Naval Academy graduation at 59th in a class of 820 (the figure Carter gave Rickover from memory), the pre-commissioning assignment to USS Seawolf as engineering officer, the sodium-cooled reactor design, and the Rickover interview exchange (“Did you do your best?” / “No, sir. I didn’t always do my best.”).
Confirms Naval Academy admission in 1943 and graduation “in the top ten percent of his class” in August 1946; a net farm profit of $187 in 1954 and a prosperous farm by 1959; and the 1962 Georgia State Senate race, including the Quitman County vote fraud a judge later threw out.
Corroborates graduation “in the top 10% of his class through an accelerated war program” in August 1946, mathematics study at Georgia Tech before Annapolis, and the November 1952 – March 1953 Naval Reactors Branch assignment under Rickover.
Confirms birth (October 1, 1924, Wise Sanitarium, Plains, Georgia) and death (December 29, 2024, Plains, Georgia, age 100); engineering study at Georgia Southwestern; Georgia State Senate (1963–1967) and governorship (1971–1975) dates; and that Wikidata Q23685 is the 39th U.S. president, not the footballer or Indonesian-politician namesakes who also share the name.
States “Simonton postulates that Carter has an IQ of 156.8,” names the 2006 study and journal, and describes the historiometric method: anonymized biographical profiles rated by judges on intelligence-linked traits, then factor-analyzed into an estimate.
The historiometric study behind the circulating 156.8 figure, covering all 42 chief executives through George W. Bush on biographical ratings rather than test scores; its scope and method are described secondhand via the Grunge coverage above, which quotes it directly.
Ranks twelve presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush, giving Bill Clinton 182 and James Earl Carter 175, and adds, “No president other than Carter has released his actual IQ (176). Note the institute measured him at 175.” No Lovenstein Institute exists; The Guardian ran the story on July 19, 2001, and retracted it days later, and a Spanish-language wire service repeated the same numbers in 2007.
Gives the exact citation: awarded “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development,” announced October 11, 2002.
Searched the Navy, Union College, Miller Center, Nobel Prize and Wikipedia materials above, plus the aggregator and hoax pages; none contains an administered IQ test score for Carter, only the Naval Academy class rank, the Rickover selection, and the two circulating estimates.
The sources behind our estimate
The figures that circulate for Jimmy Carter, what we were able to confirm, and where the two diverge.
The number attached to Jimmy Carter’s name most often today is 156.8, credited to a 2006 academic study and repeated on ranking sites as his IQ. An older, higher number, 175, circulated in a fabricated 2001 “Lovenstein Institute” e-mail that also claimed Carter had personally “released” an actual IQ of 176.
No published IQ test result exists for Jimmy Carter. The 156.8 traces to Dean Keith Simonton’s 2006 historiometric study in Political Psychology, which rated 42 presidents on biographical evidence, not test scores; Grunge’s article “Jimmy Carter’s IQ Might Surprise You” repeats the figure as his IQ and names the study. The 175 comes from the July 2001 “Lovenstein Institute” hoax, reproduced in full on a University of California San Diego faculty page: it ranks Carter second among twelve presidents and adds, “No president other than Carter has released his actual IQ (176). Note the institute measured him at 175.” No Lovenstein Institute has ever existed; Wikipedia’s account of the hoax records that it was exposed within weeks and that The Guardian ran it as fact on July 19, 2001, before retracting it two days later.
Both circulating numbers sit above the documented range, which is the usual pattern here: the achievement record supports a lower figure than the one that spreads online. 156.8 is a factor-analysis output carrying a decimal point that no instrument produced; 175 is a number from a hoax that also invented a second, higher figure and called it “released.” The 59th-of-820 class rank behind the 130–148 estimate is, unlike either number above it, a fact anyone can check.
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.
Jimmy Carter — frequently asked
What is Jimmy Carter’s IQ?
No IQ test result has ever been published for Jimmy Carter, so his IQ is not a documented number. The figure that circulates today, 156.8, comes from a 2006 academic study, not a test; his record — a 59th-of-820 class rank at the Naval Academy and selection for a demanding nuclear-submarine program — supports an estimated range of about 130–148.
What is Jimmy Carter’s estimated IQ?
This site estimates Jimmy Carter’s IQ at 130–148, based on his documented academic and military record rather than a test score. The centerpiece is his Naval Academy class rank, 59th out of 820, reinforced by his selection for Admiral Rickover’s nuclear submarine program and his later turnaround of the family peanut business.
Is Jimmy Carter’s IQ 156.8?
No test confirms it. The 156.8 figure comes from a 2006 historiometric study that rated presidents on biographical traits, not from an administered test, and ranking sites such as Grunge repeat it as though it were measured. It sits above the 130–148 that this site’s record-based estimate supports.
Did Jimmy Carter ever take an IQ test?
No IQ test result for Jimmy Carter has been published or reliably reported. What is documented instead are achievement records: his Naval Academy class standing, his selection for Admiral Hyman Rickover’s nuclear submarine program, and non-credit coursework in nuclear physics and reactor technology at Union College in 1953.
Was Jimmy Carter really given an IQ of 175?
That number comes from a fabricated 2001 “Lovenstein Institute” e-mail that ranked twelve presidents and put Carter second, behind Bill Clinton’s 182. The same hoax claimed Carter had “released” an actual IQ of 176. No such institute exists, and no president on the list ever took the test it described.
What was Jimmy Carter’s class rank at the Naval Academy?
Jimmy Carter graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in August 1946 ranked 59th in a class of 820, in the top ten percent, after an accelerated wartime program. He gave Admiral Hyman Rickover this exact rank from memory in a 1952 interview for the nuclear submarine program.
How does Jimmy Carter’s estimated IQ compare with Barack Obama’s?
This site estimates 130–148 for Carter and 130–145 for Barack Obama, both drawn from academic and career records rather than test scores. Both later won the Nobel Peace Prize — Carter in 2002 for the Carter Center’s work, Obama in 2009 — though neither prize measures cognitive ability.
How does my IQ compare with Jimmy Carter?
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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Portrait by Gilbert Stuart (the Williamstown portrait, his copy of the Athenaeum portrait, in the Clark Art Institute), public domain. · Photograph by Velislav Nikolov (EU2018BG), via Wikimedia Commons (Informal Meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council, February 2018), CC BY 2.0. Background removed for the portrait above. · Official portrait by the Press Service of the President of Ukraine (president.gov.ua, 2022), CC BY 4.0. Background removed for the portrait above.
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