Top 20 African Countries With The Lowest Average Intelligence (2024)

Many people have been asking this question and many surveys have been carried out on this topic over the years (No African institution has ever done one). One of the latest and most extensive IQ studies comes from Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen. While I may not entirely endorse the findings, I believe it’s worth sharing the results. Here are the top 20 African countries with the lowest average IQ.

Average IQ in Africa

Rank Country Average IQ
20. Burundi 69
19. Côte d’Ivoire 69
18. Ethiopia 69
17. Malawi 69
16. Niger 69
15. Angola 68
14. Burkina Faso 68
13. Chad 68
12. Djibouti 68
11. Somalia 68
10. Swaziland 68
9. Guinea 67
8. Guinea-Bissau 67
7. Liberia 67
6. Sao tome and principe 67
5. The Gambia 66
4. Cameroon 64
3. Gabon 64
2. Mozambique 64
1. Equitorial Guinea 59

 

On a similar note, these are the African Countries With The Highest IQ.

According to the same data, citizens of Sierra Leone have the highest IQ in Africa, making them the smartest in Africa, they are closely followed by Mauritius, Seychelles, Eritrea and Morocco.

Top 10 African Countries With The Highest Average IQ, 2021

On the issue of Intelligence Quotient, Richard and Tatu argues that differences in national income are correlated with differences in the average national intelligence quotient (IQ). They further argue that differences in average national IQs constitute one important factor, but not the only one, contributing to differences in national wealth and rates of economic growth.

Note: These result of the 10 African Countries With The Highest Average IQ is controversial and have caused much debate, they must be interpreted with extreme caution.

Top 10 African Countries With The Highest Average IQ (2024)

Smartest countries in Africa, 2021

Country Rank Average IQ
Sierra Leone 1 91
Mauritius 2 89
Seychelles 3 86
Eritrea 4 85
Morocco 5 84
Nigeria 5 84
Uganda 5 84
Algeria 6 83
Libya 6 83
Tunisia 6 83
Madagascar 7 82
Zimbabwe 7 82
Egypt 8 81
Kenya 9 80
Zambia 10 79

 

Top 10 Countries With The Highest Average IQ in the World

Asia and Europe dominate the list, with Hong kong taking the top spot. Singapore and Japan comes in an impressive second. Europe has over five nations in the top ten – Italy in fifth, Switzerland in sixth, Austria, Luxemborg, Norway, UK, Belgium and Netherlands in seventh, Belgium in eight and the finland in eighth. The list below proves that Asia truly is the future.

Top 10 Countries With The Highest Average IQ

Country Rank Average IQ
Hong Kong 1 108
Singapore 2 108
South Korea 2 106
Japan 3 105
China 3 105
Taiwan 4 104
Italy 5 102
Iceland 6 101
Mongolia 6 101
Switzerland 6 101
Austria 7 100
Luxemborg 7 100
Netherlands 7 100
Norway 7 100
United Kingdom 7 100
Belgium 8 99
Canada 8 99
Estonia 8 99
Finland 8 99
Germany 8 99
Poland 8 99
Sweden 8 99
Andorra 9 98
Austria 9 98
Czech 9 98
Denmark 9 98
France 9 98
Uruguay 9 98
Latvia 9 98
Spain 9 98
United States 9 98
Belarus 10 97

 

Methodology & Conclusion

Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen created estimates of average IQs for 113 nations. They estimated IQs of 79 other nations based on neighboring nations or by other methods. They also created an estimate of “quality of human conditions” for each nation based on gross national product per capita, adult literacy rate, fraction of the population to enroll in secondary education, life expectancy, and rate of democratization. After finding a substantial correlation between the national IQ scores they created and these various socioeconomic factors. Their concluded that national IQ influences these measures of well-being, and that national differences in IQ are heavily influenced by genetics, although they also allow for some environmental contributions to it. They regard nutrition as the most important environmental factor, and education a secondary factor.

Sources:
IQ and the Wealth of Nations (2006)
IQ and Global Inequality (2002)
Studies of national cognitive ability (Wikiwand)

Must Read

Superior People Have This in Common 

Eating fish regularly raises IQ by almost-5 Points in Children, Study Finds 

Note: These ranking of the top 20 African Countries With The Lowest Average IQ is controversial and have caused much debate, they must be interpreted with extreme caution.

Modified on March, 2024

Uzonna Anele
Uzonna Anele
Anele is a web developer and a Pan-Africanist who believes bad leadership is the only thing keeping Africa from taking its rightful place in the modern world.

1 COMMENT

  1. […] 7th country in Africa with the lowest average IQ. So yes, this reports are not all that reliable.. Click here to read the […]

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