What is Jordan Peterson’s IQ?
The intelligence researcher’s own score has only ever been a memory, never a report.
No IQ test result for Jordan Peterson has ever been published — an unusual gap, given that he has spent decades publishing peer-reviewed research on intelligence testing itself. What exists instead is his own on-camera recollection of a number from a test he says he took long ago, plus a second, more specific self-report that quietly points to a lower one.
Jordan Peterson’s estimated IQ
- Earned a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from McGill University (1991) and held an assistant professorship in Harvard’s psychology department from 1993 to 1998.
- Spent more than two decades as a professor at the University of Toronto (1998–2021, now professor emeritus), building a peer-reviewed research record on personality and cognitive ability.
- Co-authored “Sources of Openness/Intellect” (Journal of Personality, 2005) and a longitudinal study relating IQ, neuropsychological testing, and school grades (Individual Differences Research, 2003), part of a body of work cited roughly 26,000 times.
- Co-developed the Big Five Aspects Scale, a personality-assessment instrument later commercialized as the “Understand Myself” test.
- Wrote the international bestseller 12 Rules for Life (2018) and its sequel Beyond Order (2021).
A doctorate, a prolific research record, and bestselling books are real, checkable achievements — but they describe a career, not a test result, and Peterson’s own field would not accept “published a popular book” as evidence of a specific IQ point value.
- Born
- 12 June 1962, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
- Field
- Clinical psychology; personality and intelligence research
- Education
- Ph.D., clinical psychology, McGill University (1991)
- Academic posts
- Harvard University (1993–1998); University of Toronto (1998–2021, now emeritus)
- Known for
- 12 Rules for Life (2018); the Big Five Aspects Scale; Bill C-16 commentary
What an IQ of 125–140 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 Jordan Peterson is
Jordan Bernt Peterson was born on 12 June 1962 in Edmonton, Alberta, and grew up in Fairview, in the province’s northwest. He earned two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Alberta — political science in 1982, psychology in 1984 — then completed a Ph.D. in clinical psychology at McGill University in 1991, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at McGill’s Douglas Hospital.
He joined Harvard University’s psychology department as an assistant professor in 1993, then returned to Canada in 1998 to teach at the University of Toronto, where he remained a professor for more than two decades before pausing his teaching duties in 2018 and retiring in late 2021 as professor emeritus. Alongside teaching, he built a substantial peer-reviewed research record on personality and cognitive ability — co-developing the Big Five Aspects Scale and publishing on the relationship between IQ, neuropsychological testing, and school performance — work cited roughly 26,000 times.
Peterson became internationally known in September 2016 for a series of videos opposing Canada’s Bill C-16, and again in 2018 with the bestseller 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, followed by Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life in 2021. He signed a content deal with The Daily Wire and became Chancellor of Ralston College, both in 2022. He has been a registered member of the College of Psychologists of Ontario since 1999, though he stopped seeing clinical patients in 2017; a professional-conduct dispute with the College over his social media posts reached the Supreme Court of Canada, which declined to hear his appeal in 2024.
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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Jordan Peterson: 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.
- 1962Born in Edmonton, Alberta.
- 1991Completes a Ph.D. in clinical psychology at McGill University.
- 1993Joins Harvard University as an assistant professor of psychology.
- 1998Returns to Canada as a professor at the University of Toronto.
- 2003Co-authors a longitudinal study relating IQ, neuropsychological testing, and school grades.
- 2016Gains national attention in Canada for a video series opposing Bill C-16.
- 2018Publishes the bestseller 12 Rules for Life and pauses his teaching duties.
- 2021Retires from the University of Toronto as professor emeritus; publishes Beyond Order.
Where the 150 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.
Unlike most subjects on this site, the number attached to Jordan Peterson did not start with a stranger’s guess — it started with Peterson. In a Q&A video on his own YouTube channel, widely dated to June 2017, he told viewers he’d “been tested at one point” and recalled the result as “in excess of 150,” adding that he didn’t know “exactly where it lands now.” That is a self-report: no test name, no examiner, no date, and by his own account, a decades-old memory.
The figure was picked up by celebrity-IQ blogs and quiz sites, several of which repeat “150” as settled fact and a few of which print higher, uncited variants — 145, 147, or 156 depending on the site. A separate cluster of independent bloggers took a different, more specific self-report Peterson has also given on camera — a GRE score he places around the 99th percentile on verbal reasoning against only the 70th-to-75th percentile on quantitative reasoning — and converted that pair into a composite IQ estimate of roughly 138–141. Both numbers start from the same place: what Peterson remembers about tests he took when he was younger.
How we read a number →Exact video URL and upload date pending audit — quoted consistently by secondary sources but not independently reverified here.
Widely dated to June 2017; the source of the “I had it tested… in excess of 150” self-report.
Peterson’s own peer-reviewed research directly on IQ testing and its predictive limits.
Peer-reviewed work linking his personality research to cognitive-ability measurement.
Confirm degree, professorship dates, and emeritus status.
No score report, test name, examiner, or date has ever been published for Peterson, despite his own field being intelligence testing itself.
Source URLs and first-appearance date pending audit.
Typical destination for the self-reported figure; several print higher, uncited variants of it.
Confirms continuous registration with the College of Psychologists of Ontario since 1999 and the case’s outcome at the Supreme Court of Canada.
The sources behind our estimate
The figures that circulate for Jordan Peterson, what we were able to confirm, and where the two diverge.
In a Q&A video on his own YouTube channel, widely dated to June 2017, Peterson recalled being tested “at one point” and named the result as “in excess of 150,” while cautioning that he didn’t know “exactly where it lands now.” The figure has since spread across celebrity-IQ blogs and quiz sites, several of which print higher, uncited variants.
No IQ test result for Peterson has ever been published. His most-quoted claim — “in excess of 150” — names no test, examiner, or date. He has also described a more specific breakdown on camera: a GRE verbal score he places “around the 99th percentile” against a quantitative score of only “70th, 75th percentile.” Independent attempts to convert that specific pair into a composite land around 138–141 — under the rounder figure he recalls, and still nothing more than one self-report doing arithmetic on another.
138 is what independent bloggers compute from Peterson’s own reported GRE percentiles; 150 is his own rounded recollection of a test taken decades ago; 156 is what unsourced quiz sites print for a “younger Peterson,” with no citation at all. None of the three is a documented test score.
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.
Jordan Peterson — frequently asked
What is Jordan Peterson’s IQ?
No test result has ever been published. In a Q&A video widely dated to June 2017, Peterson recalled being tested “at one point” and put the result as “in excess of 150” — a self-report with no test name, examiner, or date attached.
Has Jordan Peterson actually taken an IQ test?
He says so, but has never named which test, when he took it, or produced a score report. He has separately described a GRE score he places around the 99th percentile on verbal reasoning and only the 70th-to-75th percentile on quantitative reasoning.
Why do some sites list Jordan Peterson’s IQ as 145, 147, or 156?
Those figures appear on celebrity-IQ quiz sites without citation. They are not drawn from a test or a publication — and not even from Peterson’s own “in excess of 150” claim — they read as further rounding or invention layered on top of an already-unverified self-report.
Does Peterson’s academic background make his self-reported IQ more credible?
He is a genuine expert on the subject — a clinical psychologist who has published peer-reviewed research on IQ testing and co-developed a widely used personality assessment. That expertise makes him unusually well qualified to interpret a score. It does not substitute for actually publishing one.
What has Jordan Peterson published about intelligence testing?
As a co-author, a 2003 longitudinal study relating IQ, neuropsychological testing, and school grades in Individual Differences Research, and a 2005 paper on the cognitive correlates of the personality trait Openness/Intellect in the Journal of Personality, among other peer-reviewed work.
What is Jordan Peterson’s highest level of education?
A Ph.D. in clinical psychology from McGill University, completed in 1991, following two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Alberta.
How does my IQ compare with Jordan Peterson?
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 scientists profiles, starting with Albert Einstein.
- 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 scientists profiles — same field, same method
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Photograph by ²°¹°°, Paris, 2006, public domain. Cropped from the original. · Photograph by the Institute for Pure & Applied Mathematics (2026), CC BY 4.0. Background removed for the portrait above. · Photograph by Maryland GovPics, CC BY 2.0. Background removed for the portrait above.
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An estimate is an inference.
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