Average Rice Purity Score for 18-Year-Olds: What’s Normal

Published: October 20, 2026 | Updated: October 20, 2026

Turning 18 is a weird in-between time. You might still be in high school, or you might be packing for your first semester of college. Either way, you have probably noticed your friend group swapping Rice Purity Test scores again, maybe at orientation, maybe in a group chat at 1 a.m. If you are 18 and wondering what the average rice purity score for 18 year olds is, you are in the right place.

Here is the honest answer up front: there is no official, peer-reviewed average score just for 18-year-olds. Anyone who tells you otherwise is quoting vibes, not science. But we can talk about the ranges people often report, why 18 is such a strange age to take this quiz, and how to handle the comparison game without letting a number mess with your head.

Why There Is No Official Average for 18-Year-Olds

The Rice Purity Test has been around since 1924, when it started as a very different thing: an informal 10-question survey of 119 female undergraduates, published in The Rice Thresher, the student newspaper at Rice University in Houston. The modern 100-question version came decades later, and the standard format really took off with the web in the 2010s. The online versions you see today, including this site, are independent of Rice University. You can read more in our history of the Rice Purity Test.

Here is the catch. The only large published dataset that gets cited a lot is a Thresher compilation of more than 100,000 responses, with an average around 61 to 62, collected before 2018. That number is for all ages. It mixes teenagers, college students, thirty-somethings, and everyone else who clicked the quiz. It is not an 18-year-old average.

So when you search for an 18-specific number, you will find a lot of confident-sounding figures that are actually just self-reported quiz data, not research. Treat them as gossip, not gospel.

What Scores Do 18-Year-Olds Often Report?

With that caveat firmly in place, here is the cautious version. Based on informal, self-reported quiz data that circulates online, 18-year-olds often land somewhere in the high 70s to low 90s. These figures are anecdotal. They come from people sharing their own results after taking free online versions of the test. They are not scientific samples, and they change depending on the group answering.

Why so high? It is not because 18-year-olds are “purer” as people. It is math. The test asks about a cumulative list of experiences, and an 18-year-old has had fewer years to accumulate them than a 22-year-old or a 30-year-old. A score in the 80s or 90s at 18 usually just means you have not had much time yet, which is completely normal.

The bigger point is that the range at 18 is huge. Some 18-year-olds are heading into senior year of high school with a very short list of “yes” answers. Others are finishing freshman year of college with a much longer one. Both are 18. Both are normal. Comparing a high school senior to a college freshman is already apples to oranges, and the test does not account for that at all. For the bigger picture across all ages, see our general average score guide.

The High School to College Jump

This is where the 18-year-old score gets interesting. The Rice Purity Test has a long history as a social icebreaker, and college orientation is one of the places it pops up most. At Rice it became a standard orientation week practice for incoming students, and students at other schools have described taking it early in freshman year as a bonding ritual.

That means your score at 18 might depend a lot on which side of the transition you are on. If you take it in high school, you are measuring yourself against a list that includes a lot of things your peers probably have not done yet. If you take it during freshman orientation, you are suddenly in a room with people from all over the country, with wildly different high school experiences, and the comparison gets noisy fast.

One student quoted in the Thresher described the freshman-year score swap as a big deal at first, but said the feeling “quickly dissipated” once people settled into college life. That is probably the healthiest way to look at it. The score feels important for about a week. Then it becomes a funny story.

Why Scores Vary So Much at 18

It is completely normal for two 18-year-olds to have drastically different scores. A score of 95 is just as normal for an 18-year-old as a score of 65. Here are the everyday factors that shape the numbers people report:

• Personal values and background: cultural background, family rules, and personal boundaries influence what experiences someone seeks out or avoids during high school.
• Social environment: a large high school, a big city, or busy extracurricular schedules can expose people to different social settings earlier.
• Friend groups: peer groups often share similar habits and activities, so friend circles frequently end up with closely clustered scores.
• Living situation and timing: taking the test in the last weeks of high school versus the first month of college can produce different results for the same person.
• Regional and cultural differences: expectations and opportunities vary across communities.

None of these factors make one score better than another. They simply explain why the range of reported numbers is wide.

Comparing Scores With Friends Without Losing Your Mind

The Rice Purity Test was literally built for comparison. It started as a way to survey students, and it evolved into a game people play in groups. But there is a difference between laughing about scores with friends and treating the number like a ranking. A few things worth remembering:

The scoring is flat. Holding hands and getting a speeding ticket both cost you exactly one point. A score of 85 does not tell you which boxes got ticked, just how many. It makes no sense as a measure of anything real.

People exaggerate in both directions. Some want a lower score because it sounds more exciting. Some want a higher score because they feel pressured to seem innocent. Anonymous quiz data is not exactly a research-grade sample.

Your score is not a personality. A high score does not mean you are boring or sheltered. A low score does not mean you are reckless or cool. It means you have had a particular set of experiences, and at 18, that set is still very much in progress. If comparing scores ever stops being fun, it is okay to step away from the conversation.

Your Score Does Not Define You

It is easy to get caught up in comparing numbers when everyone in a dorm room or group chat shares their results. But a Rice Purity Test score never reflects someone’s character, morals, intelligence, or worth.

A high score simply means you have focused on other aspects of life or preferred quiet, low-key activities. It does not mean you are boring or naive. A low score simply means you have experienced a broader range of social or adventurous activities. It does not make you a bad person or reckless. Want the full breakdown of what scores mean? Read our score meaning guide.

The test is purely an informal internet quiz designed for lighthearted entertainment among friends. If you want to take the Rice Purity Test yourself, or retake the test later, your number is a snapshot, not a permanent label.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Bottom Line

If you are 18 and you got a score somewhere in the high 70s to low 90s, you are in very typical territory. If you got something lower, you are also fine. There is no official average for your exact age, and the numbers floating around online come from self-reported quiz data, not peer-reviewed science.

The Rice Purity Test is a conversation starter, a nostalgia machine, and a weird little piece of internet history. It is not a report card on your life. Take it, laugh at your score, compare with your friends if that is fun for you, and then go back to the part of 18 that actually matters: figuring out who you are when nobody is keeping score.