Mensa is the international High I.Q. Society and has over 100,000 members worldwide, with 55,000 in the United States. Mensa has only one requirement for membership: a score in the top 2% on a standardized, supervised intelligence test. For example, the minimum accepted score on the Stanford-Binet is 132.
Through its many local groups and international contacts, Mensa offers a rich variety of experiences to its members. Some members of Mensa include Steve Martin (the comedian), Scott Adams (the cartoonist), Norman Schwarzkopf (retired US Army General), Isaac Asimov (author), Geena Davis (actress), and Marilyn vos Savant (listed in the Guinness Book of World Records under "Highest IQ").
Mensa's constitution lists three purposes: to identify and foster human intelligence for the benefit of humanity; to encourage research into the nature, characteristics, and uses of intelligence; and to provide a stimulating intellectual and social environment for its members.At Mensa's 50th Anniversary in 1996, Dr. Lancelot Ware, one of the founders, addressed Mensans by stating that he hoped that “Mensa will have a role in society when it gets through the ages of infancy and adolescence.” He also said, “I do get disappointed that so many members spend so much time solving puzzles,” expressing his desire for Mensans instead to be solving some of the world's problems.
A normal intelligence quotient (IQ) ranges from 85 to 115 (According to the Stanford-Binet scale). Only approximately 1% of the people in the world have an IQ of 135 or over. In 1926, psychologist Dr. Catherine Morris Cox published a study "of the most eminent men and women" who had lived between 1450 and 1850 to estimate what their IQs might have been. The resultant IQs were based largely on the degree of brightness and intelligence each subject showed before attaining the age of 17. Since 1973, the Lovenstein Institute of Scranton, Pennsylvania, has published its research to the education community on each new president. According to statements in the report, there have been 12 presidents over the past 50 years, from F. D. Roosevelt to G. W. Bush who were all rated based on scholarly achievements, writings that they alone produced without aid of staff, their ability to speak with clarity, and several other psychological factors which were then scored in the Swanson/Crain system of intelligence ranking. The study determined the IQs of each president as accurate to within five percentage points.
Here are some prominent people from the past and present along with their IQs:
| Marilyn vos Savant | 228 |
|---|---|
| Kim Ung-Yong | 210 |
| John Stuart Mill | 190 |
| Garry Kasparov | 190 |
| Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz | 185 |
| Bill Clinton | 182 |
| Blaise Pascal | 180 |
| Leonardo da Vinci | 180 |
| Benjamin Netanyahu | 180 |
| Buonarroti Michelangelo | 180 |
| Johann Wolfgang von Goethe | 179 |
| Jimmy Carter | 176 |
| Johannes Kepler | 176 |
| Samuel Taylor Coleridge | 175 |
| John F. Kennedy | 174 |
| Voltaire | 170 |
| Bobby Fischer | 167 |
| John Quincy Adams | 165 |
| Galileo Galilei | 165 |
| Stephen W. Hawking | 165 |
| Samuel Johnson | 165 |
| Albert Einstein | 160 |
| Benjamin Franklin | 160 |
| Alfred Tennyson | 155 |
| Richard M. Nixon | 155 |
| Sharon Stone | 154 |
| Charles Darwin | 153 |
| Abraham Lincoln | 150 |
| Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | 150 |
| Franklin D. Roosevelt | 147 |
| Ralph Waldo Emerson | 145 |
| Napoleon Bonaparte | 145 |
| Charles Darwin | 135 |
| Harry Truman | 132 |
| Isaac Newton | 130 |
| Ulysses S. Grant | 130 |
| Lyndon B. Johnson | 126 |
| George Washington | 125 |
| Dwight D. Eisenhower | 122 |
| Gerald Ford | 121 |
| Martin Luther | 115 |
| Ronald Reagan | 105 |
| George HW Bush | 098 |
| George W. Bush | 091 |
