Average SAT Scores by State (2026)

The short answer: participation rate. When a state requires all juniors to take the SAT, the average includes students who would not otherwise take a college entrance exam. When the SAT is optional and the ACT is dominant (as in most Midwestern and Southern states), only the most college-driven students sit for the SAT.

Wisconsin’s 1,252 average looks impressive until you see that only 3% of students took the test. Colorado’s 1,048 looks low until you see that every public school student took it. Colorado’s number is actually a better indicator of statewide academic readiness.

Other factors that affect state averages include school funding levels, the proportion of students who are English language learners, income distribution, and whether the state uses the SAT or ACT as its accountability assessment. None of these should be ignored when comparing states.[^1]

SAT participation has increased significantly since the College Board redesigned the test in 2016 and partnered with states to make it a mandatory school-day assessment. In 2024–25, over 1.9 million students in the class of 2025 took the SAT, a continuation of the upward trend in participation.

However, scores have trended downward as participation rises. The national average dropped from 1,060 in 2020 to 1,029 in 2025. This is largely a mathematical consequence of broader participation: as more students take the test, the average moves toward the middle of the ability spectrum.

The College Board also reports that only 43% of the class of 2025 met the College and Career Readiness benchmark for both sections (480 in ERW and 530 in Math), continuing a decline that predates the pandemic but worsened afterward.[^3]

“Good” depends on where you want to go. Here is a rough framework:

Your state average is not your target. Your target is the middle 50% range of admitted students at the schools on your list. Every college publishes this data in their Common Data Set or on their admissions page.

The state-level data on this page comes from the College Board’s 2024–25 SAT Suite of Assessments Annual Report, which covers the high school class of 2025. Total scores are the sum of Evidence-Based Reading and Writing (ERW) and Math, on a 400–1600 scale. Participation rates represent the estimated percentage of high school graduates who took the SAT at least once during high school.

Race and ethnicity data is self-reported by students during registration. We present these figures as published by the College Board to reflect real patterns, with the context that score gaps are driven by systemic factors, not individual ability.

We update this page annually when the College Board releases new data, typically in September. The “2026” in our title refers to the current academic year; the underlying data is from the most recent completed reporting cycle (class of 2025).