SAT scores by state, class of 2025
Mean total and section scores for all fifty states and the District of Columbia, from the College Board’s own state reports, with the participation rate beside each one — because without it the ranking says the opposite of what it appears to say. Nationally the mean was 1029 across 2,004,965 test takers.
If you came for a converter that turns raw answers into a score out of 1600: it cannot exist any more. The digital SAT is a multistage adaptive test — the College Board’s own wording — and the second module of each section is harder or easier depending on how you did in the first. Two people with the same number correct can score differently because they sat different questions.
Parsed from 51 College Board state reports for the class of 2025 · How we check
The ranking is a participation table in disguise
The 20 states where a tenth or fewer of graduates sit the SAT average 1206. The 9 where nine in ten or more sit it average 944 — a gap of 262 points that has nothing to do with teaching. Across all 51 the correlation between participation and mean score is -0.95. A state near the top of this table is a state where the SAT is optional and the ACT is the default; a state near the bottom usually pays for every pupil to sit it in school.
All fifty states and DC
| State | Total | R&W | Math | Took it | Of class | Met both |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North Dakota | 1254 | 631 | 623 | 80 | 1% | 74% |
| Nebraska | 1249 | 630 | 619 | 357 | 1% | 78% |
| Wisconsin | 1240 | 624 | 616 | 1,219 | 2% | 78% |
| Kansas | 1238 | 626 | 612 | 803 | 2% | 76% |
| Wyoming | 1234 | 638 | 597 | 80 | 1% | 75% |
| Utah | 1229 | 622 | 606 | 867 | 2% | 77% |
| Mississippi | 1223 | 624 | 598 | 426 | 1% | 74% |
| South Dakota | 1214 | 619 | 595 | 161 | 2% | 76% |
| Iowa | 1211 | 616 | 595 | 972 | 2% | 70% |
| Minnesota | 1210 | 612 | 598 | 2,149 | 3% | 71% |
| Montana | 1205 | 622 | 584 | 485 | 5% | 73% |
| Louisiana | 1195 | 613 | 582 | 1,234 | 2% | 66% |
| Arizona | 1194 | 606 | 588 | 8,327 | 10% | 71% |
| Tennessee | 1189 | 608 | 581 | 3,100 | 4% | 69% |
| Kentucky | 1181 | 607 | 574 | 1,182 | 2% | 66% |
| Arkansas | 1177 | 609 | 568 | 783 | 2% | 63% |
| Nevada | 1177 | 601 | 576 | 2,378 | 7% | 65% |
| Missouri | 1174 | 600 | 575 | 2,411 | 4% | 65% |
| Alabama | 1172 | 601 | 570 | 1,556 | 3% | 61% |
| North Carolina | 1165 | 590 | 575 | 26,598 | 22% | 66% |
| Oklahoma | 1150 | 590 | 560 | 1,257 | 2% | 59% |
| Oregon | 1127 | 581 | 546 | 10,192 | 24% | 54% |
| Hawaii | 1125 | 574 | 551 | 4,173 | 29% | 56% |
| Vermont | 1115 | 576 | 539 | 2,857 | 49% | 51% |
| Massachusetts | 1114 | 566 | 548 | 43,814 | 57% | 53% |
| Virginia | 1112 | 567 | 544 | 49,936 | 48% | 53% |
| Alaska | 1097 | 567 | 530 | 2,332 | 27% | 49% |
| California | 1096 | 555 | 541 | 123,259 | 26% | 52% |
| Washington | 1095 | 560 | 535 | 28,870 | 35% | 51% |
| Pennsylvania | 1084 | 555 | 529 | 63,879 | 47% | 49% |
| Maine | 1078 | 558 | 521 | 5,420 | 39% | 44% |
| New Jersey | 1061 | 538 | 523 | 73,197 | 66% | 46% |
| New York | 1045 | 527 | 518 | 127,054 | 62% | 44% |
| Georgia | 1038 | 532 | 506 | 74,667 | 56% | 38% |
| Ohio | 1018 | 515 | 503 | 28,070 | 20% | 40% |
| New Hampshire | 1017 | 523 | 495 | 12,514 | 76% | 34% |
| South Carolina | 1017 | 524 | 493 | 30,772 | 53% | 33% |
| Idaho | 1003 | 512 | 490 | 16,381 | 69% | 33% |
| Maryland | 1003 | 514 | 488 | 53,955 | 73% | 34% |
| Connecticut | 989 | 505 | 484 | 41,532 | 91% | 33% |
| Colorado | 987 | 505 | 482 | 59,203 | 90% | 32% |
| Florida | 970 | 502 | 468 | 204,840 | 87% | 28% |
| Texas | 964 | 490 | 474 | 301,020 | 74% | 28% |
| Illinois | 961 | 488 | 473 | 142,400 | 99% | 29% |
| District of Columbia | 958 | 493 | 466 | 5,675 | 85% | 29% |
| Michigan | 953 | 487 | 466 | 106,047 | 102% | 26% |
| Indiana | 950 | 485 | 464 | 82,126 | 105% | 25% |
| Rhode Island | 935 | 481 | 455 | 11,429 | 99% | 24% |
| Delaware | 933 | 480 | 453 | 11,249 | 94% | 22% |
| West Virginia | 911 | 474 | 437 | 16,901 | 93% | 17% |
| New Mexico | 875 | 451 | 424 | 23,439 | 104% | 12% |
| United States | 1029 | 521 | 508 | 2,004,965 | — | 39% |
“Met both” is the share meeting the College Board’s readiness benchmarks in both sections — 480 in Reading and Writing and 530 in Math. It is the figure least distorted by who sits the test, and it is lower everywhere than the score ranking suggests. Michigan, Indiana, New Mexico show participation above 100%: the takers and the graduate count come from different collections, and in a state that tests every 11th grader some who sat it do not graduate with that cohort.
How the score is built
| Reported | Range | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Reading and Writing | 200–800 | Two separately timed modules; the second adapts to the first. |
| Math | 200–800 | Same two-module structure. A calculator is allowed throughout. |
| Total | 400–1600 | The two section scores added. Nothing is weighted. |
| Readiness benchmark | 480 and 530 | The section scores the College Board associates with being ready for college work. |
Questions people actually ask
- Can a calculator turn my raw score into an SAT score?
- Not since the test went digital in 2024. The College Board describes the SAT as multistage adaptive: each section runs in two separately timed modules, and the second module is harder or easier depending on how you did in the first. Two students with the same number of correct answers can receive different section scores because they were answering different questions. Any converter offering a raw-to-scaled table is using a chart from the paper test.
- What is a good SAT score?
- The mean for the class of 2025 was 1029 across 2,004,965 test takers, so anything above that beats half the field. The College Board's own bar is lower and more concrete: its College and Career Readiness Benchmarks are 480 in Reading and Writing and 530 in Math. Nationally 64% met the first and 39% met the second.
- Which state has the highest SAT scores?
- North Dakota, at 1254 — on 80 test takers, which is 1% of its graduating class. Those are the students applying to colleges that want an SAT, in a state where the ACT is the norm. It is a ranking of self-selection, not of schools.
- Why do states where everyone takes the SAT score lower?
- Because everyone takes it. Where a state pays for the SAT during the school day, the average includes students with no plans to apply anywhere; where it does not, only the college-bound sit it. Across the 51 jurisdictions here the correlation between participation rate and mean score is -0.95 — close to the strongest a real-world relationship gets, and it means the ranking is very nearly a list of participation rates in reverse.
- How is the SAT scored?
- Two section scores of 200 to 800 — Reading and Writing, and Math — added to a total of 400 to 1600. There is no penalty for a wrong answer, so leaving a question blank can only cost you. The section score is not a percentage of questions right; it comes from a model that accounts for which questions you saw.
- What does the percentile on my report mean?
- The share of a comparison group scoring at or below you. The All Tester Percentile on the official report uses the last three cohorts of 12th graders who took the SAT anywhere in the world, so it is a percentile among test takers rather than among all students your age.
- Can a participation rate be over 100%?
- It appears so for three states here, because the count of test takers from a graduating class and the count of graduates come from different places. Where a state tests every 11th grader in school, some who sat the test do not graduate with that cohort. Read those rates as "essentially everyone".
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