The IQ Of Nations
A number of researchers have correlated national IQ with national wealth. There is a significant correlation.
From the study: National Intelligence and Economic Growth: A Bayesian Update, by George Francis Independent Researcher, United Kingdom, and Emil O.W. Kirkegaard Independent Researcher, Denmark, Manking Quarterly:
We find national IQ to be the “best predictor” of economic growth, with a higher average coefficient and average posterior inclusion probability than all other tested variables (over 67) in every test run. Our best estimates find a one point increase in IQ is associated with a 7.8% increase in GDP per capita, above Jones and Schneider’s estimate of 6.1%.
George Francis’s Substack:
If you have heard of national IQ before then you have probably seen something like the graph below. National Intelligence has an extremely strong association with GDP per capita – roughly 70% of the variation in the wealth of nations can be explained by IQ alone. In fact, it has a very strong relationship with pretty much every national indicator for success.
Here is a chart presented by Steve Sailer in the article Emil Kirkegaard And George Francis On The IQ Of Nations, VDare, 17 September 2022:
Countries above the line, such as Qatar, Ireland, Luxembourg, or Singapore have higher per capita GDPs than their national average IQ would predict, while those below the line (such as Cambodia, Vietnam, Mongolia, and China) have lower actual GDPs than predicted by the IQ model.
Book: The 10,000 Year Explosion, by Cochran, Gregory and Henry Harpending, 2010. [Overview] [PDF]
Book: The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life, by Richard J. Herrnstein, Charles Murray, 1996.
Book: Noticing: An Essential Reader, by Steve Sailer, 2024.
