ACT score percentiles
ACT publishes a national rank for every Composite score: the percentage of ACT-tested high school graduates of 2023, 2024, and 2025 who scored at or below it. The table below is that one, unedited.
Every Composite score, 36 down to 1
A national rank of 72 against a Composite of 22 means 72 percent of that group scored 22 or lower. It is a rank among people who took the ACT, not among all students — which is the comparison that matters when the other applicants to a college also took it.
The third column is a different study: the SAT total range each ACT score concords to in the official 2018 tables. It is not a rank and it is not a conversion — each figure links through to the concordance row it came from, where what a concorded score does and does not mean is set out in full.
ACT Composite national ranks
| ACT Composite | National rank | SAT equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| 36 | 100 | 1570–1600 |
| 35 | 99 | 1530–1560 |
| 34 | 99 | 1490–1520 |
| 33 | 98 | 1450–1480 |
| 32 | 97 | 1420–1440 |
| 31 | 96 | 1390–1410 |
| 30 | 94 | 1360–1380 |
| 29 | 92 | 1330–1350 |
| 28 | 91 | 1300–1320 |
| 27 | 88 | 1260–1290 |
| 26 | 86 | 1230–1250 |
| 25 | 83 | 1200–1220 |
| 24 | 80 | 1160–1190 |
| 23 | 76 | 1130–1150 |
| 22 | 72 | 1100–1120 |
| 21 | 68 | 1060–1090 |
| 20 | 63 | 1030–1050 |
| 19 | 57 | 990–1020 |
| 18 | 52 | 960–980 |
| 17 | 46 | 920–950 |
| 16 | 40 | 880–910 |
| 15 | 34 | 830–870 |
| 14 | 27 | 780–820 |
| 13 | 20 | 730–770 |
| 12 | 12 | 690–720 |
| 11 | 5 | 650–680 |
| 10 | 2 | 620–640 |
| 9 | 1 | 590–610 |
| 8 | 1 | — |
| 7 | 1 | — |
| 6 | 1 | — |
| 5 | 1 | — |
| 4 | 1 | — |
| 3 | 1 | — |
| 2 | 1 | — |
| 1 | 1 | — |
What counts as a good ACT score
The table is the only honest answer, and it is a blunt one. The mean Composite in this group is 19.2, with a standard deviation of 6.1 — so most scores sit in the teens and low twenties, and a point or two either way moves a rank more than most people expect near the middle of the scale.
An 18 ranks at 52, which is roughly the middle. A 21 ranks at 68, a 24 at 80 — four in five — and a 30 at 94. The top of the scale is compressed: a 36 ranks at 100, and 34 and 35 are both at 99, because the percentages are whole numbers and there is very little room left above the ninety-ninth.
None of that says what score you need. That depends entirely on the colleges on your list, each of which publishes the middle 50 percent of the scores it admitted, and a rank is only useful next to those numbers.
Where these numbers come from
- Who is in it
- ACT-tested high school graduates of 2023, 2024, and 2025
- Which edition
- Used for ACT tests taken from September 2025 through August 2026
ACT replaces this table each September. Last checked against the official table on August 18, 2026.