What Is Shakira's IQ? Tracing the Famous "140" Claim
Shakira's IQ is widely reported as 140, but the claim traces to a list Mensa denied. Here is the real story, and her documented intellectual pursuits.
Dr. Russell T. WarneChief Scientist
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Shakira's IQ is widely reported as 140, and that number has a traceable origin that does not survive inspection. It spread in June 2013 through coverage of a supposed Mensa celebrity IQ list, and Mensa publicly denied releasing any such list within days. No documented test score for Shakira has ever been published. What is verifiable is a genuine pattern of intellectual curiosity: she quietly audited a history course at UCLA in 2007, addressed the Oxford Union on universal education in 2009, and completed a University of Pennsylvania ancient-philosophy course online in 2020. This article separates the rumor from the record.
The short answer: 140 is a rumor with a broken source
How the claim spread in 2013
In June 2013, HuffPost reported that Mensa International had revealed Shakira held an IQ of 140. The article now carries an update stating that on June 6, Mensa International released a statement denying it had released any list revealing the names and IQs of its members. The only institutional source ever cited for the number disowned it almost immediately.
Why listicle IQs keep recycling the same number
Everything published since recycles that debunked list or cites nothing at all. Celebrity IQ sites copy from one another, so a fabricated figure can circulate for a decade and acquire an air of fact through repetition alone. The same dynamic produced the numbers attached to other pop stars; our article on Taylor Swift's IQ walks through a nearly identical case.
What Shakira has actually done, on the record
2007: auditing Western Civilization at UCLA, incognito
In summer 2007 she audited "Introduction to Western Civilization: Ancient Civilizations from Prehistory to Circa A.D. 843" at UCLA, telling her instructor only that she was visiting from Colombia and taking the class for her own enrichment. The professor, Robert Cleve, said she looked like an ordinary student and added, "I was really impressed with how intelligent she was." She audited the course rather than taking it for a grade.
2009: addressing the Oxford Union
In December 2009 she addressed the Oxford Union, the university's storied debating society, speaking on universal access to education. The cause is a long-standing one for her: she founded a foundation that builds schools in Colombia and has served as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador.
2020: a Penn ancient-philosophy certificate
During the 2020 lockdown she completed the University of Pennsylvania's four-week online course "Ancient Philosophy: Plato and His Predecessors," taught by Professor Susan Sauvé Meyer and offered through Coursera, and posted her completion certificate. She said the work took a lot of hours after her kids were asleep. It is a certificate of completion rather than a Penn degree, and she never claimed otherwise.
What these pursuits do and do not say about IQ
Auditing a course, finishing a MOOC, and giving a speech are evidence of intellectual curiosity and engagement. They are not measurements. IQ is a reliable, valid measure of general cognitive ability, or "g," and it predicts educational outcomes at the group level (Deary et al., 2007). The inference does not run backward: no amount of coursework can be converted into a number for one individual. A person can be genuinely curious and average, or incurious and brilliant; only a test distinguishes the cases.
What an IQ of 140 would actually mean
On the modern scale, with a mean of 100 and a "standard deviation" (a measure of score spread) of 15, a 140 sits in roughly the top 0.4% of the population. Scores like that exist and are measurable, but they can only come from a "normed" test, one scored against a large representative sample. For what such scores mean in practice, see our guide to genius IQ scores. A number on a recycled listicle tells you nothing about whether Shakira would actually score there.
How to get a real IQ score
A defensible IQ number comes from a professionally developed, normed instrument such as the WAIS or a validated online assessment. The Reasoning and Intelligence Online Test from RIOT IQ was built to those standards, and the free IQ test is the fastest way to see a real score with real norms behind it, which is more than any celebrity IQ list can claim.
Frequently asked questions
Is Shakira's IQ really 140?
The 140 figure comes from a 2013 "Mensa celebrity IQ list" story, and Mensa publicly denied ever releasing any list of members' names and IQs. No documented test score for Shakira has been published, so 140 is an unverified rumor.
Is Shakira in Mensa?
There is no credible evidence that she is. Mensa does not confirm or deny individual memberships, and it denied producing the celebrity list that started the claim.
Did Shakira really study philosophy at an Ivy League school?
Yes, in a limited sense. In 2020 she completed the University of Pennsylvania's four-week online course "Ancient Philosophy: Plato and His Predecessors" on Coursera and posted her certificate. It is a course certificate rather than a degree.
What did Shakira study at UCLA?
In summer 2007 she quietly audited "Introduction to Western Civilization: Ancient Civilizations from Prehistory to Circa A.D. 843." Her instructor only learned afterward that she was a global pop star.
Why did Shakira speak at Oxford?
The Oxford Union debating society invited her in December 2009, and she spoke about universal access to education, a cause tied to her foundation and her UNICEF ambassador work.
References
1. Nichols, J. (2013, June 5). Shakira's IQ of 140 makes Colombian singer a 'genius,' Mensa International reports (update). HuffPost. huffpost.com
2. CBS News/Associated Press. (2007, September 14). Shakira takes history class at UCLA. CBS News. cbsnews.com
3. Rosenberg, A. (2020, April 24). Shakira completes ancient philosophy course at University of Pennsylvania while quarantined. PhillyVoice. phillyvoice.com
4. Szczerba, M. (2009, December 9). Shakira visits the Oxford Union. Cherwell. cherwell.org
5. Shakira. (2009). Shakira's speech at Oxford Union [Video]. YouTube. youtube.com
6. Warne, R. T. (2020). In the know: Debunking 35 myths about human intelligence. Cambridge University Press. doi.org/10.1017/9781108593298
7. Deary, I. J., Strand, S., Smith, P., & Fernandes, C. (2007). Intelligence and educational achievement. Intelligence, 35(1), 13-21. doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2006.02.001
Hero image: Shakira performing at the Singapore Grand Prix concert, September 2011. Photo by suran2007, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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