A widely shared online ranking that places several Western Balkan states among the lowest in Europe on average IQ has stirred public debate across the region, though psychologists and education researchers say the dataset is too thin and methodologically flawed to support any conclusions about national cognitive ability.
The “Average IQ by Country – 2025” ranking, published by the website international-iq-test.com, aggregates scores from more than 1.3 million voluntary users who completed a 90-question non-verbal IQ test modeled on Raven’s Progressive Matrices.
According to the platform’s data, North Macedonia scored 97.59, Albania 97.19, Bosnia and Herzegovina 97.62, and Montenegro 98.31 – all below the global average of 100 and well below Western Europe’s range of 99–101. Serbia, at 100.86, is the only Western Balkan economy aligned with the European mean.
East Asian economies dominate the top positions: China (107.2), South Korea (106.4) and Japan (106.4).
Behind the headline numbers lies a structural problem: the data is neither representative nor controlled for socio-economic or educational factors.
The platform acknowledges that participation is voluntary, meaning only individuals who actively seek out online IQ tests take part.
Country sample sizes vary dramatically. China logged hundreds of thousands of test-takers, while small Western Balkan countries posted only a few hundred.
The site warns that the dataset “should not be used as a substitute for formal psychological assessment.”
The release drew immediate attention on social media in Serbia, North Macedonia and Albania, where users shared memes questioning national intelligence and others denouncing the ranking as “clickbait pseudoscience.”
In Tirana, several education NGOs expressed concern that poorly interpreted data could feed negative stereotypes about Balkan societies already facing brain-drain and the lowest PISA scores in Europe.
Psychometric specialists warn that even scientifically validated IQ assessments do not measure national character or collective intelligence.
Researchers note that IQ performance correlates strongly with quality of schooling, household income, nutrition and early childhood development, and exposure to testing environments.
These factors vary widely across the Western Balkans after decades of conflict, transition economies and under-funded education systems.
The surge in online IQ-testing platforms has accelerated during the past decade, driven by gaming culture, competitive social media trends and interest in cognitive benchmarking. But psychologists warn that these tools often lack clinical controls, cultural neutrality and professional supervision.
Some Balkan educators say the popularity of the ranking may nonetheless reflect a deeper regional anxiety about education standards.
Beyond social media debates, analysts say the data offers little of value for policymakers. With no representative sampling, demographic stratification or national testing protocols, the rankings cannot be used to measure human capital or workforce productivity.
While the ranking places several Western Balkan countries at the bottom of Europe on average IQ, experts stress that the data is derived from a narrow, non-representative slice of internet users. The numbers say more about online behaviour than they do about national cognitive ability.
For governments grappling with brain-drain, low test scores and fragile education systems, analysts say the real work lies not in reacting to online rankings but in strengthening early childhood development, teacher training and digital literacy.