Systems and methods pertaining to iris recognition are disclosed. A system is disclosed comprising an iris imager configured to acquire an iris image, and a processor configured to receive a first plurality of iris images from the iris imager, generate a first plurality of iris codes corresponding to the first plurality of iris images, generate a distribution metric corresponding to an iris cell location, generate a first composite iris code using the distribution metric, and generate a first match value using the first composite iris code and a first stored iris code.