IQ distribution of Thai students

Abstract

Objective To study the IQ distribution in each region and province of Thailand.

Materials and methods This study was analyzed data from the national survey of Thai students’ IQ in 2011. Standard Progressive matrices (SPM-parallel version) were administered to 72,780 primary and secondary students with age between 6-15 years old. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the IQ distribution according to Wechsler’s IQ classifi cation in national, region, and province level compared with normal distribution.

Results The overall IQ distribution of Thai students is relatively different from the normal distribution which 42.5% is students who has average IQ (IQ 90-109), 29% who has above average IQ (IQ > 109), and 28.4% who have below average IQ (IQ < 90). Regarding regions, the northern and the central areas has almost similar distribution to normal distribution in contrast with the northeastern and the south areas which has the proportion of intellectual defi ciency over the normal distribution. In addition, the distribution in each province can be grouped according to the majority of students’ IQ classifi cation into four patterns: 1) provinces which 40% or above have high average IQ and over, 2) provinces which 40% or above have low average IQ and below, 3) provinces which IQ distribution closed to normal distribution, and 4) provinces which amount of students who have average IQ was less than normal distribution and higher in other scales.

Conclusion The results from this study has improved understanding of national intelligence situation and identifying the areas which have the intellectual problems.