There is no authoritative modern table of average IQ by profession. The most defensible comparison uses job-specific cognitive demands, while treating old occupation scores as historical—not current—evidence.
Search results often give tidy numbers for doctors, pilots, lawyers or programmers. The tidy part is the warning sign. Modern occupational systems do not administer the same intelligence test to representative samples of every career, and employers do not publish a national “average IQ” register.
This page replaces thirteen narrow profession pages with one evidence-led answer. It preserves the useful question—how cognitive demands differ across careers—without pretending that a century-old aptitude table can tell you the IQ of today’s workforce.
For a personal estimate rather than an occupational stereotype, start with the free IQ test and interpret the result as a range, not a career verdict.
What 13 professions actually demand
The table uses representative occupations from the U.S. Department of Labor’s O*NET system. O*NET describes abilities and work requirements; it does not publish average IQ scores. The ability labels below therefore answer a narrower and more defensible question: which kinds of reasoning are prominent in the work?
| Profession | Representative O*NET code | Prominent demands | What the evidence supports |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accountants and auditors | 13-2011.00 | Mathematical reasoning, information ordering, written comprehension | Financial records demand accuracy and rule-based analysis; the occupation does not have a defensible modern “average IQ.” |
| Architects | 17-1011.00 | Visualization, spatial orientation, deductive reasoning | Design work combines spatial modeling, regulation, client constraints and technical communication. |
| Chief executives | 11-1011.00 | Problem sensitivity, oral comprehension, judgment | The role varies enormously by company size and sector, so a single cognitive profile is especially misleading. |
| Physicians | 29-1215.00 | Problem sensitivity, inductive reasoning, oral comprehension | Medical training selects for academic attainment, but diagnostic skill also depends on knowledge, communication and disciplined decision-making. |
| Civil engineers | 17-2051.00 | Mathematical reasoning, visualization, deductive reasoning | Engineering emphasizes quantitative modeling and constraints; specialties differ substantially. |
| Lawyers | 23-1011.00 | Written comprehension, oral expression, deductive reasoning | Legal work depends on close reading, argument, precedent and domain knowledge, not an IQ cutoff. |
| Military officers | 55-1019.00 | Problem sensitivity, spatial orientation, decision-making under uncertainty | No single O*NET code represents every officer role; aviation, logistics, engineering and command demand different ability mixes. |
| Registered nurses | 29-1141.00 | Problem sensitivity, oral comprehension, information ordering | Nursing combines rapid monitoring, communication and procedural accuracy in high-consequence settings. |
| Airline pilots, copilots and flight engineers | 53-2011.00 | Spatial orientation, response orientation, problem sensitivity | Aviation selection and licensing test job-relevant knowledge and performance; they do not establish a population-wide pilot IQ average. |
| Software developers | 15-1252.00 | Deductive reasoning, problem sensitivity, information ordering | Software work rewards decomposition and debugging, while product, systems and front-end roles differ. |
| Clinical and counseling psychologists | 19-3033.00 | Oral comprehension, written comprehension, inductive reasoning | Professional competence also requires ethics, interpersonal judgment and supervised training. |
| Research scientists | 19-1029.00 | Inductive reasoning, written comprehension, problem sensitivity | Science spans laboratory, field, computational and theoretical work; the shared feature is disciplined inference rather than one score. |
| Secondary school teachers | 25-2031.00 | Oral expression, written comprehension, problem sensitivity | Teaching requires subject knowledge, explanation, classroom judgment and adaptation to learners. |
Do not read this as a ranking. A high requirement for spatial orientation is not “more intelligent” than a high requirement for verbal comprehension. Different jobs reward different mixtures of abilities, knowledge and temperament.
Where profession IQ numbers came from
One source behind many online lists is Harrell and Harrell’s 1945 paper on Army General Classification Test scores for civilian occupations. The underlying group was drawn from wartime military personnel, overwhelmingly men, and the test was not the same as a modern individually administered IQ battery. Converting those scores to an IQ-like scale can illustrate historical occupational selection, but it cannot produce a current national average.
| Historical occupation group | Approx. IQ-equivalent | Why it is not a modern average |
|---|---|---|
| Accountant / lawyer | ~128 | Military-era aptitude sample; occupational definitions and access have changed. |
| Civil engineer | ~127 | Not a representative sample of today’s engineers or specialties. |
| Teacher | ~123 | Training, selection and workforce composition differ across eras and systems. |
| Bookkeeper / pharmacist | ~120 | Combines occupations with very different modern entry requirements. |
| Machinist / electrician | ~109–110 | Job skill and practical expertise are poorly summarized by a single general score. |
The historical pattern is plausible in one limited sense: occupations with longer training and more abstract problem solving tend to select people who perform better on cognitive tests. Research on personnel selection also finds that general mental ability predicts training and job performance. That relationship is probabilistic, not deterministic, and later re-analyses have revised some of the headline validity estimates. A score does not replace work samples, structured interviews, credentials or actual performance.
Measure a profile, not a stereotype
The Advanced assessment separates six domains and includes open-response tasks, which is more useful for understanding strengths than comparing yourself with a profession label.
Explore the Advanced TestProfession-by-profession answers
Average IQ of Accountants
Direct answer: there is no authoritative, current dataset that reports a representative average IQ for accountants and auditors. The better-supported conclusion is that this work places a premium on mathematical reasoning, information ordering, written comprehension. Financial records demand accuracy and rule-based analysis; the occupation does not have a defensible modern “average IQ.”
Average IQ of Architects
Direct answer: there is no authoritative, current dataset that reports a representative average IQ for architects. The better-supported conclusion is that this work places a premium on visualization, spatial orientation, deductive reasoning. Design work combines spatial modeling, regulation, client constraints and technical communication.
Average IQ of Chief executives
Direct answer: there is no authoritative, current dataset that reports a representative average IQ for chief executives. The better-supported conclusion is that this work places a premium on problem sensitivity, oral comprehension, judgment. The role varies enormously by company size and sector, so a single cognitive profile is especially misleading.
Average IQ of Physicians
Direct answer: there is no authoritative, current dataset that reports a representative average IQ for physicians. The better-supported conclusion is that this work places a premium on problem sensitivity, inductive reasoning, oral comprehension. Medical training selects for academic attainment, but diagnostic skill also depends on knowledge, communication and disciplined decision-making.
Average IQ of Civil engineers
Direct answer: there is no authoritative, current dataset that reports a representative average IQ for civil engineers. The better-supported conclusion is that this work places a premium on mathematical reasoning, visualization, deductive reasoning. Engineering emphasizes quantitative modeling and constraints; specialties differ substantially.
Average IQ of Lawyers
Direct answer: there is no authoritative, current dataset that reports a representative average IQ for lawyers. The better-supported conclusion is that this work places a premium on written comprehension, oral expression, deductive reasoning. Legal work depends on close reading, argument, precedent and domain knowledge, not an IQ cutoff.
Average IQ of Military officers
Direct answer: there is no authoritative, current dataset that reports a representative average IQ for military officers. The better-supported conclusion is that this work places a premium on problem sensitivity, spatial orientation, decision-making under uncertainty. No single O*NET code represents every officer role; aviation, logistics, engineering and command demand different ability mixes.
Average IQ of Registered nurses
Direct answer: there is no authoritative, current dataset that reports a representative average IQ for registered nurses. The better-supported conclusion is that this work places a premium on problem sensitivity, oral comprehension, information ordering. Nursing combines rapid monitoring, communication and procedural accuracy in high-consequence settings.
Average IQ of Airline pilots, copilots
Direct answer: there is no authoritative, current dataset that reports a representative average IQ for airline pilots, copilots and flight engineers. The better-supported conclusion is that this work places a premium on spatial orientation, response orientation, problem sensitivity. Aviation selection and licensing test job-relevant knowledge and performance; they do not establish a population-wide pilot IQ average.
Average IQ of Software developers
Direct answer: there is no authoritative, current dataset that reports a representative average IQ for software developers. The better-supported conclusion is that this work places a premium on deductive reasoning, problem sensitivity, information ordering. Software work rewards decomposition and debugging, while product, systems and front-end roles differ.
Average IQ of Clinical
Direct answer: there is no authoritative, current dataset that reports a representative average IQ for clinical and counseling psychologists. The better-supported conclusion is that this work places a premium on oral comprehension, written comprehension, inductive reasoning. Professional competence also requires ethics, interpersonal judgment and supervised training.
Average IQ of Research scientists
Direct answer: there is no authoritative, current dataset that reports a representative average IQ for research scientists. The better-supported conclusion is that this work places a premium on inductive reasoning, written comprehension, problem sensitivity. Science spans laboratory, field, computational and theoretical work; the shared feature is disciplined inference rather than one score.
Average IQ of Secondary school teachers
Direct answer: there is no authoritative, current dataset that reports a representative average IQ for secondary school teachers. The better-supported conclusion is that this work places a premium on oral expression, written comprehension, problem sensitivity. Teaching requires subject knowledge, explanation, classroom judgment and adaptation to learners.
How to use profession and intelligence data
- Use it to understand task demands. It can show whether a role leans more on verbal comprehension, quantitative reasoning, spatial processing or rapid problem detection.
- Do not use it to exclude yourself. Career performance depends on knowledge, practice, persistence, health, opportunity and social skills as well as cognitive ability.
- Separate group evidence from individual inference. Even a trustworthy group average would not tell you where one person falls.
- Ask what the assessment measured. A general IQ score, an occupational aptitude battery and a licensing exam are not interchangeable.
The broader science is explained in the g factor, IQ test bias and cultural fairness and heritability versus environment. Those pages also explain why between-group differences cannot be read as proof of fixed or innate causes.
See where your own strengths sit
A personal score is still an estimate, but it is more informative than borrowing a number attached to an occupation.
Take the Free IQ TestFrequently asked questions
Which profession has the highest average IQ?
No current representative dataset ranks professions by average IQ. Lists circulating online usually convert old military aptitude scores or small selective samples into IQ-like numbers. They are historical clues, not modern occupational averages.
Do doctors, lawyers or engineers have a known average IQ?
Not with the precision often claimed online. These careers select strongly for education and job-relevant abilities, but modern national occupational databases describe cognitive demands rather than administering one IQ test to representative workers.
Is IQ a good way to choose a career?
It is too narrow by itself. Interests, knowledge, conscientiousness, communication, opportunity, health and sustained practice affect career fit. A broad cognitive profile can be informative, but it should not be treated as a gatekeeping score.
Why do online profession IQ tables disagree?
They often mix different tests, eras, countries, samples and conversions. Some repeat a 1945 military classification table as though it measured current civilian workers. Different assumptions produce different numbers.
Does a higher-IQ profession mean every worker has a high IQ?
No. Group averages never determine an individual score, and occupations contain wide variation. Selection standards, experience and specialization also differ inside the same profession.
Related reading
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References
- O*NET Resource Center. (2026). O*NET Database 30.3, May 2026 release. Database releases.
- National Center for O*NET Development. (2026). O*NET OnLine. Occupation profiles.
- Harrell, T. W., & Harrell, M. S. (1945). Army General Classification Test scores for civilian occupations. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 5(3), 229–239. doi:10.1177/001316444500500303.
- Schmidt, F. L., & Hunter, J. E. (1998). The validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology. Psychological Bulletin, 124(2), 262–274. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.124.2.262.
- Gottfredson, L. S. (1997). Why g matters: The complexity of everyday life. Intelligence, 24(1), 79–132. doi:10.1016/S0160-2896(97)90014-3.