Average ACT Test Scores by State
Find out your state's average ACT test scores and how they rank against the national average here.
Standardized test scores also help determine which states are best for education. The ACT is scored on a scale of 1-36, with 36 being the highest possible score .
Average ACT Scores by State (2025
Here are the average ACT scores by state , plus information about the percentage of students who meet national performance benchmarks for the United States . These are composite ACT scores or scores for the overall ACT test .
The average ACT score is 19.4. See 2026 national averages by section, all 50 state averages , percentile rankings, and what score you actually need for college.
PDF Average Act Test Scores by State Graduating Class of 2025
AVERAGE SCORE BY SECTION The table below classifies states by the percent of ACT -tested high school graduates, including the average Composite score and average ACT section scores . A best practice is to examine a cohort of states with percentages of tested students similar to your state , as modeled by the blue shading on the below table.
What is the average ACT score by state ? The national average ACT composite score is 19.4 out of 36 for the graduating class of 2024, with about 36 percent of graduates taking the test . But state averages run from a low of 17.2 in Nevada to a high of 26.7 in Washington, D.C. That huge spread is not a map of where students are smartest. It is almost entirely a map of how many students in each ...
Average ACT Scores by State (Most Recent)
Did you recently get your ACT scores back and are now wondering how your score compares with those of other test takers in your state ? Or perhaps you're curious as to how your state's average ACT score stacks up against other state averages . For this article, we compiled the average ACT scores by state , as well as the average in each subject area, using the latest data from ACT , Inc. Read on ...
See average ACT scores for all 50 states with participation rates. Learn why state rankings vary and how to interpret your ACT score . Updated 2024 data.
Average ACT Score
The national average ACT composite score for the class of 2025 is 19.4, based on approximately 1.4 million test -takers. That number has been declining slowly over the past decade, down from 21.0 in 2015, though it has stabilized over the last two years. This guide puts that average in context: what the section averages look like, how scores vary by state , where you fall in the percentile ...
See average ACT composite scores for all 50 states and DC, ranked by score and participation rate. Includes section breakdowns and trends. Updated March 2026.