What is a good IELTS score? Official averages and what you need

A good IELTS score is the score your goal requires. IELTS Academic and General Training have no pass or fail: you get a band from 0 to 9 for each skill and overall, and each university, visa office or regulator decides what it accepts. So 6.5 can be an excellent result for one person and not enough for another.

If you want a benchmark, here are three facts from official sources:

• IELTS itself calls band 7 "Good" and band 6 "Competent".
• In 2024-2025, IELTS Academic test takers from Kazakhstan averaged 6.25 overall, and those from Uzbekistan 6.07 (IELTS test statistics).
• The undergraduate courses we checked ask for 6.0 to 6.5 overall. Some visas ask for 7 or more in every skill.

And one finding from our own data: a good overall is not enough when there is a minimum for each skill. Of 1,054 first full mock exams on GoPrep, 279 reached 6.5 overall, but 121 of them (43%) had at least one skill below 6.0, so they would still miss a "6.5 with no band below 6.0" requirement (28 July to 26 September 2026; Writing and Speaking scored by the GoPrep AI examiner).

Below you'll find the averages by country, what each goal asks for (every rule linked and checked 29 September 2026), where learners usually start, and a quick practice check.

Scores go up in half bands, so 7.5 is a real score too. Half bands sit between two names: 6.5 is between Competent and Good, 7.5 between Good and Very good. As a rough guide to the CEFR scale, 6.0 is B2, 6.5 is at the top of B2 and close to the C1 border, and IELTS suggests 7.0 for a confident C1. The CEFR comparison is approximate; the full chart is in our guide to IELTS and CEFR levels. Your overall band is the average of the four skills, rounded to the nearest half band, as explained in how the IELTS band score is calculated.

What stands out:

• Writing is the weakest skill in both countries, at 5.81. That is common: Writing was the lowest skill for 31 of the 40 nationalities in the Academic table. If Writing holds your overall back, see what changes between Writing 6.5 and 7.
• Reading is the strongest, at 6.50 in Kazakhstan and 6.37 in Uzbekistan.
• About half of test takers from Kazakhstan and 4 in 10 from Uzbekistan reach 6.5 overall. A 7.0 puts you in roughly the top third of test takers from Kazakhstan and the top quarter from Uzbekistan.

Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan appear only in the Academic table: the General Training table lists 40 other nationalities, so there is no official General Training average for either country. IELTS also gives averages by first language. For Academic, test takers whose first language is Kazakh averaged 6.20, Uzbek 6.04 and Russian 6.59.

Read these numbers with care:

• They describe people who took IELTS, not everyone in a country.
• IELTS lists its largest nationalities in alphabetical order, not every country, so "28th" means 28th among the 40 listed.
• IELTS says the figures are "broadly in line with statistics for previous years".

Across the 40 nationalities in the Academic table, 21 averaged 6.5 or more, and only 4 averaged 7.0 or more: Germany, Spain, Malaysia and Italy. So an overall 7.0 is above the average of 36 of the 40.

These are examples, not a ranking. Nazarbayev University's figures are for Regular Admission; its page sends applicants for financial aid and scholarships to separate requirements. Two patterns repeat. The undergraduate courses ask for 6.0 to 6.5 overall and the graduate course for more. And almost every page adds a minimum for each skill. Nazarbayev University and the University of Toronto also say they don't combine your best skills from different test dates. If a course also accepts TOEFL or Duolingo, see how IELTS, TOEFL and Duolingo compare.

For visas and work

A few details change the answer:

• Not every UK route needs a test. Other ways of proving English may be accepted, such as a degree taught in English, and for degree-level study your university can assess your English itself. If your route does require a Secure English Language Test (SELT) and you use IELTS, it must be IELTS for UKVI for routes that test all four skills, or IELTS Life Skills for routes that test only speaking and listening. The visa rules set the CEFR level; the gov.uk list of approved tests sets the IELTS score for each level. Which test to book for each route is in our guide to IELTS for UKVI vs Academic.
• Canada takes only General Training for Express Entry, and IRCC says: "We don't accept IELTS One Skill Retake for Express Entry." The NMC doesn't accept One Skill Retake either. If you plan to use one, check the rules in our One Skill Retake guide.
• Australia sets the level per visa. Check your visa subclass page for which level it needs and how old your result may be.
• In Uzbekistan, 7.0 is worth money. Under Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 209, the state compensates the exam fee for an IELTS result of 7 or higher. It applies to citizens (and stateless permanent residents) who were under 31 on the test day and apply within 180 days of the date the certificate was issued (lex.uz). Details are in our guide to IELTS registration in Uzbekistan.

The average first mock was 5.5 overall in both the Kazakhstan and the Uzbekistan group, while the official averages are 6.25 and 6.07. This is not a like-for-like comparison, and it doesn't show that one group is stronger than the other:

• the official figures come from people on test day; these are learners' first recorded full mocks on GoPrep, and we don't know how much preparation they had already done;
• a mock exam is not IELTS, and on GoPrep Writing and Speaking are scored by AI;
• a device time zone is not a nationality.

In this sample, about 3 in 4 first recorded full mocks were below 6.5.

Compare the first two rows. 26% of first mocks reached 6.5 overall, but only 15% reached 6.5 with no skill below 6.0. The difference comes from one or more skills below 6.0: of the 121 mocks with 6.5 overall that missed the minimum, 107 of 121 missed it in exactly one skill and 14 of 121 in two. The skill below 6.0 was Listening in 53 of 121, Writing in 40, Reading in 28 and Speaking in 14 (a mock can count twice). Canada's Express Entry is not in this table because it needs General Training, and the mock exams in this sample were all Academic.

Which skill blocks each requirement

Across all 1,054 first mocks, here is which skills were below the minimum in the mocks that missed three common requirements:

Speaking was the skill least often below the minimum. Listening, Reading and Writing were each below it in 57% to 78% of the mocks that missed a requirement, and Writing led for Nazarbayev University, which sets a higher minimum for Writing (6.0) than for the other skills (5.5). When your requirement has a minimum for each skill, your weakest skill decides whether your score is good enough.

The first candidate needs one half band in the right skill. The second needs four half bands, and at least one each in Writing and Speaking to clear the 6.5 minimum. Same overall, very different plans. Once the target is clear, how to prepare for IELTS shows how to plan the first week.