I recently met an old friend whom I hadn’t seen in probably 30 years. We were discussing the US election wondering, “How could they be so stupid?”
The obvious question then becomes, “Were they really stupid?”
Here is the answer:
US election by state Average IQ 2004
1 Connecticut 113 Kerry
2 Massachusetts 111 Kerry
3 New Jersey 111 Kerry
4 New York 109 Kerry
5 Rhode Island 107 Kerry
6 Hawaii 106 Kerry
7 Maryland 105 Kerry
8 New Hampshire 105 Kerry
9 Illinois 104 Kerry
10 Delaware 103 Kerry
11 Minnesota 102 Kerry
12 Vermont 102 Kerry
13 Washington 102 Kerry
14 California 101 Kerry
15 Pennsylvania 101 Kerry
16 Maine 100 Kerry
17 Virginia 100 Bush
18 Wisconsin 100 Kerry
19 Colorado 99 Bush
20 Iowa 99 Bush
21 Michigan 99 Kerry
22 Nevada 99 Bush
23 Ohio 99 Bush
24 Oregon 99 Kerry
25 Alaska 98 Bush
26 Florida 98 Bush
27 Missouri 98 Bush
28 Kansas 96 Bush
29 Nebraska 95 Bush
30 Arizona 94 Bush
31 Indiana 94 Bush
32 Tennessee 94 Bush
33 North Carolina 93 Bush
34 West Virginia 93 Bush
35 Arkansas 92 Bush
36 Georgia 92 Bush
37 Kentucky 92 Bush
38 New Mexico 92 Bush
39 North Dakota 92 Bush
40 Texas 92 Bush
41 Alabama 90 Bush
42 Louisiana 90 Bush
43 Montana 90 Bush
44 Oklahoma 90 Bush
45 South Dakota 90 Bush
46 South Carolina 89 Bush
47 Wyoming 89 Bush
48 Idaho 87 Bush
49 Utah 87 Bush
50 Mississippi 85 Bush
The IQ numbers were originally attributed to the book “IQ and the Wealth
of Nations”, though they do not appear in the current edition. The tests
and data were administered via the Raven’s APT, and the The Test Agency,
one of the UK’s leading publishers and distributors of psychometric
tests. This data has been published in the Economist and the St.
Petersburg Times, though this does not mean it should be taken as fact.
Though the data does correlate somewhat to IQ of students per state
sq.4mg.com/IQschools.htm based on SAT/ACT data, though this would be biased for those that had completed a high school education.
Someone has also taken 2000 census data on percentage of state residents that have earned a college degree and used that to compare the voting in the 2000 election ginandtacos.com/education.jpg. It’s funny, but that seems to correlate as well.
Alexis K. Gendron
Research Associate
Rock Center 107-C
Harvard Business School
Boston, MA 02163
617.495.6725 ph
617.496.4877 fx
agendron@hbs.edu
