Average IELTS Scores for Immigration, Employment, and Grad Programs
I took a look at average TOEFL scores yesterday, and today I'm taking a look at some historical data from the IELTS side. The collective of organizations that publish IELTS stats each year release a different dataset than ETS for TOEFL.
They provide 2 student performance reports on their site: a "test taker performance data", which has various demographic breakdowns with mean scores, and, confusingly enough, a "demographic data" report which is a percentile distribution by reason for taking the test (like immigration or employment).
For 2023-2024, the global averages for IELTS (assuming country data is representative of all test-takers) were:
- Overall Band Score: 6.39
- Listening: 6.62
- Reading: 6.37
- Writing: 5.96
- Speaking: 6.35
Spain, Malaysia, and Italy came in the top 3 scoring countries (7.1, 7.1, and 7.0 respectively).
In terms of immigration, grad programs, and employment, there are slightly confusing categorizations, for example they've randomly chosen to break out dentist, doctor, and nursing without indicating whether the overall employment numbers are inclusive of these.
In any case, here's a table with rough estimations of how you're doing compared to gen pop for grad programs, immigration, and employment.
| Purpose | Typical Required Band | % of Test-Takers Achieving That |
|---|---|---|
| Grad School | 6.5–7.5+ | ~60% hit 7.0+ |
| Immigration | 6.0–8.0+ (varies by country) | ~41% hit 7.0+ |
| Employment | 6.5–7.5 | ~57% hit 7.0+ |
Basically, once you hit 7.0 you're doing better than ~half of all test takers. Once you hit 7.5+ you're among the top ~15-20% of all test takers, and once you hit 8.0+ you're in single-digit, pretty elite territory.
Good luck studying folks!