What is an IQ map and can we trust them?

More or Less: Behind the Stats

BBC

Business, Mathematics, Science, News Commentary, News

4.6 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 15 March 2025

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You may have seen a map circulated on social media that claims to show the average IQ of different nations.

If you look closely these numbers vary dramatically, with incredibly low scores in developing countries, including many in Africa.

Unsurprisingly the map is often used as a way to bolster arguments about racial or national superiority.

However, when you look at the data behind the claims the whole thing falls apart. We dive into the methods behind the map and ask whether it’s even possible to accurately put a number on intelligence. Presenter: Charlotte McDonald Producer: Lizzy McNeill Series Producer: Tom Colls Editor: Richard Vadon Studio Manager: James Beard Production Co-Ordinator: Brenda Brown

Transcript

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0:00.0	Did you know that you can listen to many of your favourite podcasts first on BBC Sounds?
0:06.6	Like Desert Island Discs, where you can hear castaways like Cher, Gareth Southgate and Nick Cave,
0:12.7	and enjoy longer versions of the music they've picked.
0:15.7	Good things come to those who don't wait.
0:18.7	Listen to your favourite podcasts first on BBC Sounds.
0:22.8	Hello and thanks for downloading the more or less podcast with a program that looks at the
0:27.2	numbers in the news and the world all around us. And I'm Charlotte McDonald. Today, we're
0:35.1	going to be talking about a map that often does the rounds on social media.
0:39.1	It's quite an aesthetically pleasing map.
0:41.4	Lots of pretty colours.
0:43.2	But what it shows is pretty concerning.
0:47.1	Each colour represents a country's average IQ.
0:50.8	Lower scores go through the red-orange spectrum,
0:53.6	whereas higher scores go from cool to deep blue.
0:56.8	Areas like Europe, North America and much of Asia are different shades of blue.
1:02.0	In contrast, the African continent looks like the different colours of a bonfire.
1:07.2	When you look into the numbers, you realise just how low some of these scores are purported to be.
1:12.9	A score of 100 is considered to be average.
1:16.1	But Equatorial Guinea has an average IQ score of 59.
1:20.3	Nepal, 42, and India 82.
1:24.3	This seems crazy.
1:26.2	But alarming data doesn't always mean wrong data.
	...

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