Average Rice Purity Score by Age
Age explains more of the variation in rice purity scores than anything else. Here are the ranges people typically report at each stage, and the honest caveat about where those numbers come from.
Where these figures come from. No one runs a controlled study on the Rice Purity Test. The ranges below reflect what people consistently report when they share scores publicly, plus the distribution of scores submitted to this site. Treat them as rough conventions, not statistics.
Typical ranges by age
| Age | Typical range | What is usually driving it |
|---|---|---|
| 13-15 | 90-100 | The first few dating and kissing items, and little else on the list applies yet. |
| 16-17 | 80-95 | Relationships, a first drink, maybe a first party. The back half is untouched. |
| 18-19 | 65-85 | Leaving home is the single biggest drop in the whole curve. |
| 20-21 | 55-75 | Nightlife and relationship items fill in through the middle of university. |
| 22-25 | 45-65 | Most of the first two-thirds of the list applies by now. |
| 26-30 | 35-60 | The curve flattens: the remaining items are far less common experiences. |
| 30+ | 30-55 | Little further movement. What is left on the list is mostly rare or extreme. |
Why the curve flattens
Scores fall fast between 17 and 22, then slow down sharply. That is not because people stop having experiences. It is because of how the list is built.
The first sixty or so questions describe things that happen to most people eventually: dating, kissing, relationships, drinking, a night that got out of hand. Those get ticked in a rush during the late teens and early twenties. The final forty describe progressively rarer situations — specific circumstances, criminal offences, extremes — and most people never tick many of them at any age.
So the score does not keep dropping forever. It converges somewhere in the 30s to 50s for most adults and stays there.
The biggest single drop
Ask anyone who took the test before and after starting university and the gap is usually fifteen to twenty-five points in a single year. Living away from home for the first time exposes people to most of the middle section of the list at once. If your score fell off a cliff at eighteen, that is the most ordinary result this test produces.
How to compare fairly
- Compare within a year or two of your own age. Anything wider is comparing calendars.
- Compare the same version of the test. A 100-item score and a 96-item score are different units.
- Do not compare across countries casually. Legal drinking ages and social norms move these ranges considerably.
Frequently asked
What is the average rice purity score overall?
There isn't a meaningful one, because the answer depends almost entirely on who is taking it. A number averaged across teenagers and thirty-year-olds describes nobody.
What is a normal score for a 16-year-old?
Most land somewhere between 80 and 95. Anything in the high 90s is completely ordinary at that age.
What is a normal score for a college student?
Usually 55-75, drifting down across the four years. First-year scores are noticeably higher than final-year ones.
Should my score keep falling as I get older?
It flattens out. Most adults settle in the 30s to 50s because the remaining questions describe genuinely uncommon situations.