Who Has the Highest IQ in the World? 35 People Who Are Even Smarter Than Einstein

Who has the highest IQ in the world? You might be surprised to learn it wasn't Einstein.

There's no doubt that Einstein was a genius, but he doesn't win the title of "smartest person in the world" because there are tons of people—both past and present—who are even smarter.

So if you're wondering who has the highest IQ in the world, this list of brainiacs includes the all-time smartest people in the world, according to their mind-blowing IQs.

Highest IQs in the World 

1. Johann Goethe 

Johann Goethe was a German polymath who lived in the 1800s, and his estimated IQ score ranged from 210 to 225. He founded the science of human chemistry and developed an early theory of evolution. To make him more of a Jack-of-all-trades, he is considered one of the greatest figures in Western literature. His poetic drama Faust was published in 1808 and is still read and studied today.

2. Leonardo da Vinci 

A legendary painter with works like the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, Leonardo da Vinci is one of the most celebrated geniuses ever to live. With an estimated IQ score ranging from 180 to 220, he was also able to create technological innovations like flying machines, armored vehicles, and adding machines.

3. James Maxwell 

Having an estimated IQ score ranging from 190 to 205, James Maxwell was a mathematical physicist from Scotland. He’s best known for creating the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation. When Einstein was asked if he had stood on the shoulders of Issac Newton to reach success, he replied, "No, I stand on Maxwell’s shoulders."

4. Nicolaus Copernicus 

Copernicus was a mathematician and astronomer hailing from Poland. Boasting an estimated IQ score ranging from 160 to 200, he was the one who discovered that the sun, rather than the Earth, is the center of our solar system.

5. William Sidis

William Sidis was an American child prodigy who eventually became the inspiration for the film Good Will Hunting. With IQ scores ranging from 200 to 300, he was accepted to Harvard when he was nine. However, the Ivy League university wouldn’t let him in due to his age. He attended Tufts University until Harvard finally let him attend when he was 11.

6. Carl Gauss 

Carl Gauss was a child prodigy who went on to become one of the greatest German mathematicians of the 19th century. With IQ scores ranging from 250 to 300, he contributed to the number theory fields like algebra, statistics, and analysis.

7. Nikola Tesla 

Whenever you think of "Tesla," the luxury car brand may come to mind. However, Nikola Tesla was one of the smartest people ever to walk the planet. Born during a lightning storm in 1856, Tesla had an IQ range from 160 to 310. He’s known as the inventor of the Tesla coil and alternating current machinery.

8. Voltaire

Francois Marie Arouet, a.k.a. Voltaire, had an estimated IQ range from 190 to 200. Born in 1694, he was one of France’s greatest writers and philosophers, known for his satire and criticism of his country’s elite noblemen.

9. Christopher Hirata 

Christopher Hirata, who has an IQ of 225, gained notable attention at the age of 14 when he became the youngest winner at the 1996 International Physics Olympiad. By the time he was 16, he was working with NASA investigating the colonization of Mars.

10. Terence Tao 

Often called the Mozart of Math, Terence Tao was a child math prodigy who now teaches at UCLA. His IQ scores range from 211 to 230. He has become well known for his contributions to number theory and harmonic analysis. The Los Angeles Times reported that he was awarded $3 million in 2015 for winning the new Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics.

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11. Hypatia

Hypatia of Alexandria was a philosopher and the greatest mathematician and astronomer in 4th-century Greece. Her estimated IQ scores range from 170 to 210.

12. Hugo Grotius 

Hugo Grotius had an estimated IQ score of 200 and was a 17th-century Dutch jurist and scholar. Grotius is best known for his contributions to international law and was appointed attorney general of Holland, Zeeland, and West Friesland in 1607.

13. Marie Curie 

Marie Curie is perhaps best known for her research on radioactivity, which led to the significant development of X-rays in surgery. With an IQ score ranging from 180 to 200, she was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize and the first person to win it twice in physics and chemistry.

14. Kim Ung-Yong

At the age of three, Kim Ug-Yong was already studying in university courses. By the time he was four, he spoke four different languages. Seeing his IQ score ranging from 200 to 210, NASA invited him to study in the US when he was just eight years old.

15. Dylan Jones

Having an IQ score of 200, Dylan Jones graduated from the Colorado School of Mines, where he gained a degree in math and computer science when he was just 16. A year later, he enrolled at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, where he is currently studying to be a neurosurgeon.

16. Michael Grost 

Michael Grost was only 10 years old when he started studying at Michigan State University in 1964. Having an IQ score of 200, he later earned his doctorate in mathematics at 23. As of 2005, he was a system architect at a computer company in Detroit.

17. Michael Kearney 

Having an IQ score ranging from 200 to 325, Michael Kearney received four bachelor’s degrees and a doctorate by the time he was 22. His first one was from the University of South Alabama when he was just 10.

18. Ainan Cawley 

Boasting IQ scores between 263 and 349, Ainan Cawley could recite pi to the 518th decimal place by the time he was nine. When he was six, he gave a science lecture about acids and alkaloids. By the time he was seven, he had passed the O Level Chemistry exam (specifically made for 16-year-olds). On his eighth birthday, he enrolled in Singapore Polytechnic.

19. Nathan Leopold 

Born in Chicago in the early 1900s, Nathan Leopold had an IQ of 210 and spoke his first words at four months old. However, in 1924, he killed a 14-year-old boy with his friend Richard Loeb while trying to commit "the perfect crime." Leopold and Loeb’s actions would inspire the Alfred Hitchcock film Rope.

20. Marilyn vos Savant 

Despite being a college dropout, Marilyn vos Savant gained significant attention when her estimated IQ score of 228 was listed in The Guinness Book of World Records in 1985. She is also famous for her column in Parade magazine, by which she gained critical attention for solving the famous mathematical Monty Hall problem.

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21. Christopher Langan 

Having an IQ reported between 174 and 210, Esquire dubbed Christopher Langan as the "smartest man in America." Being mostly self-taught, he has spent much of his adult life developing the Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe.

22. Marnen Laibow-Koser

After acing a childhood IQ test, Marnen Laibow-Koser was given an estimated IQ of 268. He is now a composer, a web application developer, and a New England Conservatory graduate.

23. Nadia Camukova 

Born in Moscow in 1976, Nadia Camukova was estimated to have an IQ of 200. The Brain Research Institute located in Moscow reported later on that she had the highest IQ in the world. She can speak seven languages and eight Turkish dialects. Currently, she’s a professor at Bahçeşehir University in Turkey.

24. Sho Yano 

At just nine years old, Sho Yano enrolled in Loyola University and graduated summa cum laude three years later. Having an IQ of 200, Yano entered the prestigious Pritzker School of Medicine at age 12, and at 21, she became the youngest student in the school’s history to receive an MD.

25. Edith Stern

When Edith Stern was five years old, she'd read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica. Having an IQ of 203, she was in college by the age of 12, and by 15, she was teaching college-level math classes. She has worked at IBM since the 1970s and has been recognized for her many achievements in applied mathematics.

26. Francis Galton 

With an estimated IQ of 200, Sir Francis Galton was best known for his eugenics and human intelligence research. He is also credited with developing the modern weather map and introducing the use of fingerprints in police work.

27. Thomas Wolsey

In the 16th century, Thomas Wolsey was an English cardinal and statesman. Having an estimated IQ of 200, he was Henry VIII’s lord chancellor and organized the first meeting between the King of England and Francis I, King of France.

28. John Stuart Mill 

John Stuart Mill was a member of the British parliament and a 19th-century political philosopher. Having his IQ scores range from 180 to 200, John Stuart Mill favored utilitarianism and criticized unlimited state control, arguing that "liberty is a fundamental human right."

29. Ettore Majorana