Average IQ of a CEO: Do Bosses Have Higher IQs?
The average IQ of a CEO is above average, but not in the "genius" territory people imagine. The best evidence comes from Sweden, where researchers matched CEOs to their military enlistment test results and found big-company CEOs tend to score well above the population on cognitive ability. The twist: they also scored high on noncognitive traits like emotional stability and social skill, and those mattered just as much.
So if you're thinking "do I need to be a genius to run something?", the answer is no. IQ Tester can at least show you which reasoning skills are already your strengths: Find my weak spots.
Average IQ of a CEO: the data
Most of what you read about CEO IQ online comes from three kinds of sources:
- Reddit and Quora guesses. "Probably 130+" with zero citations.
- Proxy data. Elite school attendance, SAT-style scores, or degrees. Interesting, but not IQ.
- Actual studies. Rare, but they exist, and the Swedish one is the best.
Nobody has handed IQ tests to every Fortune 500 boss. So the average IQ of a Fortune 500 CEO isn't directly known. But the research below gives a much better picture than vibes.
The Swedish CEO study in plain words
Here's what happened, without the finance jargon.
For decades, almost every young man in Sweden had to go through military enlistment testing. That included a cognitive ability test (basically an IQ-style test) and an interview with a psychologist that rated things like emotional stability, persistence and social skills.
Economists Renée Adams, Matti Keloharju and Samuli Knüpfer linked those old test results to people who later became CEOs. Their paper, "Are CEOs Born Leaders?", was published in the Journal of Financial Economics in 2018.
What they found, simplified:
- CEOs scored above average on cognitive ability.
- CEOs of bigger companies scored higher than CEOs of smaller ones.
- They also scored high on noncognitive ability, the personality and social side.
- CEOs weren't usually off-the-charts extreme on any single trait. What stood out was being solidly strong across the board.
Why this matters
It means "CEOs are just smarter" is too simple. The more accurate version: CEOs tend to have a good mix of brains, calm and people skills. That's harder to fake and harder to measure.
Caveats
- The study covered Swedish men who did enlistment testing, so it doesn't automatically apply to women, other countries or today's startups.
- It's correlation. Higher scores didn't cause anyone to become CEO.
Fortune 500 CEOs vs small business owners
Average IQ of top CEOs
The Swedish data suggests leaders of large companies score higher on average than small-firm leaders. Top CEOs also tend to come from elite universities, which fits.
Average IQ of a business owner
The average IQ of small business owners isn't well measured anywhere. And honestly, it probably spans the whole range. Running a barbershop, a food truck or an online shop takes a different mix of skills than running a 50,000-person company.
| Role | What the evidence says | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
| Large-company CEO | Above average cognitive and noncognitive scores | Moderate (Swedish data) |
| Small-company CEO | Above average, but less so | Moderate |
| Small business owner | Unknown, likely very wide range | Low |
| Entrepreneur / founder | No good data | Low |
| Business analyst | No specific data; analytical roles likely skew above average | Low |
| Business students | Estimates from admissions tests sit around average to slightly above | Low |
Average IQ of a businessman (or businesswoman)
"Businessman" covers everyone from a sales rep to a billionaire. There's no single average, and anyone who gives you one is guessing.
Why IQ stops mattering past a point
This is the part that surprises people.
A 2017 study by John Antonakis, Robert House and Dean Keith Simonton in the Journal of Applied Psychology looked at how smart leaders were and how effective their teams rated them. Leaders with higher IQs were rated as more effective, up to a point. Beyond that, ratings flattened and dipped.
Their explanation: when a leader is much smarter than the people they lead, communication can suffer. Plans get too complicated. People feel talked over.
So the best IQ for a leader may be "smart enough to be respected, close enough to be understood." That's a real lesson for anyone who's ever been the group project member nobody could follow. The military sees a similar split between officers and enlisted, covered in average IQ of a soldier.
What CEOs score higher on than IQ
From the Swedish data and from common sense in any office, these traits matter as much as raw reasoning:
- Emotional stability. Staying calm when everything breaks.
- Social skill. Getting people to follow you without forcing it.
- Persistence. Not quitting after the third failed launch.
- Decision speed. Choosing with 70% of the info, not waiting for 100%.
- Communication. Making complex ideas simple.
Leadership skills for teens and students
You can practice these right now:
- Run something small. A club, a group chat event, a study group, even a stream (creators are basically tiny CEOs; see average IQ of a twitch streamer).
- Explain your thinking out loud. If your friends get it in one go, you're on track.
- Own a mistake publicly. It builds trust faster than being right.
- Track your decisions. Write down what you chose and why. Check later.
Here's the tricky part: you can't easily judge your own reasoning style. Most of us think we're more logical than we are, and we're blind to the parts that slow us down.
That's where a quick outside check helps. IQ Tester scores you on four kinds of reasoning (number series, verbal analogy, logic and pattern) so you see your profile instead of guessing it. Founders and future CEOs need to know their blind spots first. Find my weak spots
Your own reasoning profile
You won't find out the average IQ of a CEO from one test, but you can find out what your strengths look like in the next few minutes. IQ Tester has 20 untimed questions, sign-in with Google or Apple, and a free band plus three of your four category strengths. Then the guides give you one short drill a day on the weakest one.
FAQ
Do CEOs have a high IQ?
On average, yes, above the population. Swedish enlistment data shows CEOs, especially of larger companies, scored above average on cognitive tests. But they weren't usually extreme, and personality traits mattered just as much.
What is the average IQ of a Fortune 500 CEO?
There's no direct measurement. Fortune 500 CEOs haven't been IQ tested as a group. Indirect evidence, like elite education and the Swedish study on large-firm CEOs, suggests above average, but any exact number is a guess.
What is the average IQ of small business owners?
Unknown. Small business owners range from solo tradespeople to tech founders, and no good study has measured them. The skills that matter most are often grit, people skills and practical problem-solving.
Do you need a high IQ to be rich?
No. IQ has a modest link to income on average, but plenty of successful people have average scores. Persistence, timing, social skills and a bit of luck matter a lot.
Is there a best IQ for a leader?
One 2017 study found leaders were rated most effective when they were smarter than their team, but not too far beyond them. Being understandable matters as much as being clever.