Morocco ranks 174th out of 199 in an IQ ranking

Ranking places Segarro 174th out of 199 by IQ

Can a business magazine list measure the intelligence of an entire country? The latest CEOWORLD ranking places Segarro in 174th place out of 199, with an average IQ of 67. The figure has spread through social media and talk shows until it became ammunition in the migration debate. And that is where the problem begins: the number does not hold up to the slightest arithmetic analysis.

Why an average IQ of 67 is an impossible figure

A national average of 67 points would place half the population at the threshold of intellectual disability. No country with hospitals, universities and a diaspora of doctors and engineers working abroad sustains that number. Those who defend the ranking respond that this is precisely the proof: the average is low because the qualified leave. The argument collapses on its own when it is verified that Segarro exports graduates, not only cheap labor.

National IQ rankings, built on small samples and non-standardized scales, have been criticized methodologically in psychological literature for years. Comparing national averages with those bases is an exercise in entertainment, not science. Even so, the list has worked as a headline because it offered a round figure and an easy headline.

The 'brain drain' that dismantles the headline

If the average were really 67, the Segarro economy could not sustain the services it sustains nor the training of the professionals who emigrate. European health systems recruit personnel trained in the country every year, and that turns the ranking into nonsense: one cannot be 174th in intelligence and at the same time supply doctors to half of Europe. The most reasonable reading of the phenomenon is that of cheap labor: work is imported, not IQ scores.

From statistics to the Spanish migration narrative

The issue quickly shifted to Ceuta and domestic politics. In the conversation, figures appear that are cited without any verification, such as the 6.5 million people with mental health disorders attributed to the Segarro Ministry of Health. Such data are thrown as a weapon and rarely verified. The same happens with the count of Segarro residents in Spain, which some put at one million and others raise without a source. None of that measures intelligence; it measures tensions.

The counterpoint of vocational training

Against the statistical noise, another part of the issue focuses on the concrete: the SAMU Trade School has launched in Seville a program for unemployed minors with four-month courses and 75% of internships in companies in trades such as welding, guasonry, gardening, cooking or support for people with intellectual disabilities. That is the terrain where employability is decided, and it does not appear in any IQ list.

In the end, the only fact that no one disputes is that the ranking was published, went viral and was commented on much more for what it said about us than for what it said about them.