FAKE: Ukraine is the lowest-ranked country in Europe for IQ levels

In social media, including Threads, the claims that Ukraine ranked last in Europe for IQ levels on the International IQ Test portal are being spread. The claim states that Ukraine placed 78th out of 127 countries worldwide, with a score of 95.55.

However, this is fake. This portal’s ranking does not meet quality standards because it is based solely on user-submitted scores, which can be manipulated.

The International IQ Test is an online platform offering IQ assessments. In addition to testing, the portal publishes an annual ranking of countries by average IQ, updated each January 1 based on data from the previous year. This year, the site ranked Ukraine 78th out of 127 countries.

However, this ranking is entirely based on user submissions to the platform. The International IQ Test considers only scores from its own site, disregarding other widely available IQ tests. Moreover, there is no universally recognized or 100% reliable IQ test. Various methodologies exist, and professionals often rely on multiple tests for the most accurate results.

Comparing countries by the average IQ of their citizens is also methodologically flawed. Intelligence is influenced by cultural background, and creating a universal test independent of cultural context is impossible. Additionally, a 40-question test cannot accurately measure intelligence, as it is a complex phenomenon not fully understood by science.

The International IQ Test country rankings also suffer from significant methodological errors. For accurate comparisons, the participant samples for each country should be consistent. In this ranking, the number of participants varied greatly — from about 4,000 in Iran to nearly 150,000 in Japan. Furthermore, platforms like these do not provide standardized conditions for taking the test.

Anyone can add their score to their country’s ranking by selecting a country after completing the test. The platform does not automatically determine the user’s country of origin, allowing participants to choose any country. Users can take the test multiple times without restriction, making it easy to artificially inflate scores for a specific country, either individually or through bots. The site does not provide any information about measures to combat spam traffic, block mass IP addresses, or exclude such accounts from the annual statistics.

For example, in 2023, Russia ranked 26th, but in 2024, it suddenly rose to 6th place. This suggests that results may have been artificially boosted to manipulate the ranking.

In conclusion, the authors of the ranking made several methodological errors, making it impossible to draw valid conclusions about average IQ by country. Propagandists frequently cite unreliable rankings to discredit Ukraine and divert Russian attention from domestic issues. Previously, we debunked claims that Ukrainian cities were among the ten most crime-ridden in Eastern Europe.