AsiaOne hasn't quite gotten their facts right in this news article – the eligibility criteria for Mensa is to score above the 98th percentile (i.e. in the top 2%) on the Admission Test, which equates to an IQ of 130 or above (i.e. 2 standard deviations above the mean). The term genius is generally considered, (in the context of IQ scores), to mean a person who with an IQ of ≥145 (i.e. 3 S.D. above the mean).

If AsiaOne were using the term genius in a non-IQ context, then it should be noted that Richard Feynman (best known for Feynman diagrams), who is generally considered a genius by the international physics community, would not be eligible for Mensa based on his measured IQ of 125.

Just 0.1% of the population would score at 3 standard deviations above the mean, so there are twenty times as many people eligible for Mensa membership as there are geniuses. As the news article references Mensa, I assume AsiaOne is referring to genius in the context of IQ scores.

Click here to read the whole four-page AsiaOne news article on a single page – not on small screens.