Number of candidates per country of origin

Introduction

This report lists the numbers of candidates from each of the various countries of origin reported by high-range I.Q. test candidates since the mid-1990s. A household remark: There may be countries in this table that no longer exist, like "Serbia and Montenegro", "Yugoslavia", and "Netherlands Antilles". If you are reading this and think you are listed as being from one of those but prefer to be on record as originating from a currently extant country, let me know so that it can be altered in the database. Although technically one's country of origin may well be a no longer existing country, in some cases it may be better to specify which current country it concerns.

Number of candidates per country of origin

N = 3092 (countries with fewer than 4 candidates have been left out of the above table for reasons of privacy)

r_{number of candidates per country × national average I.Q. per country as published by Lynn and Vanhanen, later Lynn and Becker}: 0.22 (n = 77, p value = 0.06)

Conclusion

The low but almost significant correlation with national average I.Q.'s shows that high-range tests tend to draw somewhat more candidates from countries with higher average I.Q.'s. For a proper understanding one should realize that the population sizes of the countries have not been controlled for, so this correlation could be (partly) caused by the very slightly larger populations of the countries with higher average I.Q.'s.

In this context, one should also consider the tiny yet significant correlation of high-range test scores with national average I.Q.'s: 0.082 (p value = 0.0000000007, n = 5650 score-country pairs from 113 tests). So, candidates from high-I.Q. countries score only very slightly higher than candidates from low-I.Q. countries, but there are more of them. This pattern of correlations is compatible with the following two mechanisms occurring in combination:

1. High-range tests draw candidates from a certain constant I.Q. range irrespective of their countries of origin; this mechanism would cause there to be more candidates from countries with higher average I.Q.'s, and would cause a near-zero correlation of high-range test scores with national average I.Q.'s;
2. High-range tests draw more candidates from countries with greater population sizes and/or better infrastructure and access to the tests; this mechanism would cause a positive correlation of high-range test scores with national average I.Q.'s, and would also contribute to the positive correlation between participation per country and national average I.Q., because the countries with higher national I.Q.'s are very slightly more populous on the whole (this correlation is reported below in the Addition).

Addition

This report seems the right place to include the following results, based on national average I.Q.'s reported by Lynn and Vanhanen, later Lynn and Becker, and the estimated national population sizes as per 2022 (Worldometers):

• World average I.Q. weighted by population sizes: 88.4
• Unweighted world average I.Q.: 84.5
• Total population size of countries included in calculation: 7834.1 million
• Number of countries included in calculation: 193
• Correlation national I.Q. × population size: 0.09 (n = 193, p value = 0.20)

Since especially some countries with low national average I.Q.'s are growing explosively, the world average I.Q. is expected to drop further.

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