About Mensa

There are many opportunities to meet people, exchange ideas and make new friends at your intellectual level. Activities include lectures, special interest group gatherings, social activities and much more. Visit the Events section. Mensa members are a diverse group, with members who joined at ages 3 to 103. All economic levels, occupations and interests are represented. Mensa is a not-for-profit society. Its purposes are to identify and foster human intelligence for the benefit of humanity, encourage research into the nature, characteristics and uses of intelligence, and to provide a stimulating intellectual and social environment for its members.

Mensans come from every imaginable economic level, occupation and interest area. Mensans worldwide have only one thing in common — intelligence. So no matter what you think or how you vote, why not consider joining us? We're always on the lookout for new members to further enrich our diversity of abilities, interests and opinions.

The Origin of Mensa

Mensa was founded in England in 1946 by Roland Berrill, an Australian barrister, and Dr. Lancelot Ware, a British student who was later to gain a string of qualifications in science and the law Their idea was to form a society for bright people, the only qualification for which was a minimum IQ.  The original aims were, as they are today, to create a society that is non-political and free from all racial or religious distinctions.  When the eccentric, flamboyant Australian and reserved Englishman met by chance on a train at Oxford, the idea of Mensa occurred to them . Although Ware is credited with the idea of Mensa, it was Berrill who actually founded the society, on 1 October 1946, by supplying the start-up cash, writing the first idiosyncratic pamphlets and becoming Mensa 's first Secretary. Berrill died a few years later, having recruited about 400 people by self-administered IQ tests. Dr. Ware dropped out of Mensa for many years but later rejoined and was a member until his death in 2000, with the honorary title Fons et Origo attesting to his claim on the original idea.

Find Out More

Though the world-wide Mensa organization is represented by Mensa International Limited in London, Americans will find the most immediate and relevant information about joining at American Mensa in Dallas.