The IQ's below cannot be verified, and have become a well publicized Internet hoax. Click to see verified state IQ scores, compared to 2003 income and Bush-Kerry votes. The original email with it's appealing political "story" is below the chart. The main problem with this hoax data is its overly wide spread of IQ scores. Its ranking of states is partially accurate.

Rank  State                   AVG IQ    AVG '94 Income*  2000 election vote
(1) Connecticut..................113      \$26,979          Gore
(2) Massachusetts................111      \$24,059          Gore
(3) New Jersey...................111      \$26,457          Gore
(4) New York.....................109      \$23,534          Gore
(5) Rhode Island.................107      \$20,299          Gore
(6) Hawaii.......................106      \$21,218          Gore
(7) Maryland.....................105      \$22,974          Gore
(8) New Hampshire................105      \$22,934          Bush
(9) Illinois.....................104      \$21,608          Gore
(10) Delaware....................103      \$21,451          Gore
(11) Minnesota...................102      \$20,049          Gore
(12) Vermont.....................102      \$18,834          Gore
(13) Washington..................102      \$20,398          Gore
(14) California..................101      \$21,278          Gore
(15) Pennsylvania................101      \$20,253          Gore
(16) Maine.......................100      \$18,226          Gore
(17) Virginia....................100      \$20,629          Bush
(18) Wisconsin...................100      \$18,727          Gore
(19) Colorado.....................99      \$20,124          Bush
(20) Iowa.........................99      \$18,287          Gore
(21) Michigan.....................99      \$19,508          Gore
(22) Nevada.......................99      \$20,266          Bush
(23) Ohio.........................99      \$18,624          Bush
(24) Oregon.......................99      \$18,202          Gore
(25) Alaska.......................98      \$21,603          Bush
(26) Florida......................98      \$19,397          Bush
(27) Missouri.....................98      \$18,835          Bush
(28) Kansas.......................96      \$19,376          Bush
(29) Nebraska.....................95      \$19,084          Bush
(30) Arizona......................94      \$17,119          Bush
(31) Indiana......................94      \$18,043          Bush
(32) Tennessee....................94      \$17,341          Bush
(33) North Carolina...............93      \$17,667          Bush
(34) West Virginia................93      \$15,065          Bush
(35) Arkansas.....................92      \$15,439          Bush
(36) Georgia......................92      \$18,130          Bush
(37) Kentucky.....................92      \$16,534          Bush
(38) New Mexico...................92      \$15,353          Gore
(39) North Dakota.................92      \$16,854          Bush
(40) Texas........................92      \$17,892          Bush
(41) Alabama......................90      \$16,220          Bush
(42) Louisiana....................90      \$15,712          Bush
(43) Montana......................90      \$16,062          Bush
(44) Oklahoma.....................90      \$16,198          Bush
(45) South Dakota.................90      \$16,558          Bush
(46) South Carolina...............89      \$15,989          Bush
(47) Wyoming......................89      \$17,423          Bush
(48) Idaho........................87      \$16,067          Bush
(49) Utah.........................87      \$15,325          Bush
(50) Mississippi..................85      \$14,088          Bush

* click for updated incomes by state - with a humorous twist!

See http://www.isteve.com/Web_Exclusives_Archive-May2004.htm#38115.6465670139 for a thorough debunking of the sources and accuracy of this data. Unfortunately, the person who put this data on the internet cannot be reached. Here is what he wrote:

From: Robert Calvert (Hercules1@pcstarnet.com)
Newsgroups: rec.org.mensa, sci.anthropology, alt.politics.british, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh
Date: 2002-11-28 22:36:02 PST 

Here's the average IQ by state according to the Ravens APM; the most accurate measure of innate intelligence in my opinion. I drew my inspiration from the book "IQ and the Wealth of Nations" and turned it into IQ and the Wealth of States. The second column is Average income by state; source: '94 World Almanac. The column on the right (including all it's implications) is self-explanatory. :-)

Obviously, New England's score shouldn't surprise anybody. I would probably consider Hawaii's score to be a little irregular if I didn't know that a very large Japanese minority lived there. I'm certainly not surprised that Mississippi is dead last, but I am surprised that Wyoming, Idaho and Utah scored so low. I also couldn't help but notice how the IQ score is almost as diverse between the states as it is between nations. I suppose this can be explained by the tendency of people to seek out like minded people combined with the freedom of travel within such a large nation.

Robert

UPDATE 5/20/2004 The information above has reappeared in highly respected publications like the Economist magazine and Florida's St Petersburg Times newspaper. Although the data has been discredited, it remains appealing, particularly to Democrats. IQ data on US states does NOT appear in the book IQ and the Wealth of Nations.

Retraction from The Economist 5/20/04

Clueless in St James's .......Last week we published a list that purported to show the IQ s of states voting for George Bush and Al Gore in 2000. Alas, we were the victim of a hoax: no such data exists. By way of apology, here are two very crude ratings of states' intelligence-and how they voted.

(This retraction at http://www.economist.com/World/na/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2692859)

Sloan's note: The Economist was right; no valid state IQ data existed 5/20/04. But Sloan has since created such data at Non-Hoax data on State IQ's, based on SAT and ACT scores

Comments to: VanSloan@yahoo.com

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