percentage of blue eyes by country

So, if melanocytes extract just a little bit of melanin, babys eye color will remain light, but they usually produce much more of this protein, which causes darker eye colors. The website WorldAtlas.com takes a stab at estimating the breakdown of eye colors worldwide. Unsurprisingly, another Scandinavian country has placed itself third on our list of countries with the highest percentage of blond hair citizens. All About Vision and AllAboutVision.com are registered trademarks of AAV Media, LLC. Brown eyes in an otherwise mostly light-eyed region may point to a genetic leftover and a time in history during which everyone in the world had brown eyes. Most Asian and African children are born with brown and black eyes. Common Eye Disorders. 2000-2023 AAV Media, LLC. 2023 Dotdash Media, Inc. All rights reserved, Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. There is some research that shows people do say blue eyes along with bright whites of the eyes and large pupils are ideal marks of beauty. Europe was the epicenter of the blue-eye gene mutation. This article discusses where blue eyes come from and how having blue eyes may increase your risk for certain health conditions. But a survey of more than 25,000 people from 12 countries has . Icelandic people demonstrate a strong national pride in preserving their culture. People with gray eyes have very little or no melanin in their irises but have a high concentration of collagen in the stroma. At the same time, nearly half of the U.S. population has brown eyes. the admirers of blue eyes and fair hair were disgusted . An article released Monday in the peer-reviewed . Although hazel eyes may contain specks of amber or gold, they usually tend to have many other colors, including green, brown and orange. It is a result of the relative excess or lack of pigment within an iris or part of an iris, which may be inherited or acquired by disease or injury. Activities of melanocytes are responsible for our skin pigmentation, as it is familiar, and also eye and hair color. Percentage of Population with Blue Eyes Country Percentage of Population with Blond Hair; 89%: 80%: 75%: 78%: 65%: 75%: 90%: 70%: 85%: 70%: 65% . Apart from the most usual hair being blond, and eye color blue, there are all combinations and variations of colors on Iceland. This occurs in humans and certain breeds of domesticated animals and affects less than 1 percent of the world's population. Blue eyes are an inherited trait. Provincia: bulletin trimestriel de la Socit de Statistique http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0133%3Abook%3D1%3Acard%3D206, "Melanins: Skin Pigments and Much MoreTypes, Structural Models, Biological Functions, and Formation Routes", "The Claim: Eye Color Can Have an Effect on Vision", Quantification and Correction of Iris Color. Changes (lightening or darkening) of eye color during early childhood, puberty, pregnancy, and sometimes after serious trauma (like heterochromia) suggest that eyes sometimes change color under certain circumstances, due to chemical reactions or hormonal changes within the body. Boys are 3 percent to 5 percent likelier to have blue eyes than girls, but beyond that it's a non-issue -- physiologically speaking. Although most common eye color in Latvia that ranks 7th on our list oftop countries that have the most blondes and blue eyes as a percentage ofpopulation, is blue and greyish-blue and hair blond, there is also a certain amount of population being grey-eyes and brown haired, whose roots can probably be traced to the ancient Livs, who have later been assimilated. Blue eyes have small amounts of melanin while brown eyes are rich in melanin. Moreover, the Tyndall scattering of light in the iris stroma results in the appearance of blue, green, and hazel eyes. Eye damage from UV and blue light appears to be related to your lifetime exposure to these rays, so wearing sunglasses that block 100% UV (and most blue light) should start during childhood, when possible. Home Improvement / story. How does a parent with a different eye color have a blue-eyed child? Are contact lenses a good choice for kids? Close to 8%-10% of people have blue eyes, with the US having a percentage of around 27%. Both parents may have icy blue eyes, but that's no guarantee their child's eyes will even be blue at all. In these cases, the only color seen is the red from the hemoglobin of the blood in the capillaries of the iris. Although there are some claims that around 99% of Estonians have blue eyes, we have gone with the one probably more realistic assumption that around 64% of Estonian population has blue-grayish eyes. Hazel eyes: What determines hazel eye color? From 6-36 months, cells in the iris start producing melanin and the eye color will change. ", "Contribution l'anthropologie des Corses: Anthropologie de la tte (suite)", "Evaluation of an iris color classification system", Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, "Subspecies comparison of the Genus: Corucia", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eye_color&oldid=1140743886. Former U.S. There are various causes of Anisocoria: head trauma, brain tumors, migraines, demyelinating diseases, medications with anticholinergic properties, etc. We all know those people whose eyes look nothing like their parents, but there was some cousin or ancestor in their family that they resemble much to. Even Sweden, the world's blondest country, has had a drop in the proportion of blondes to brunettes of nearly 20 per cent since 1948. . On average, they have 90,000 strands, while blondes . Eye color percentages around the world - Medical News Today, Eye Spy: Worldwide Eye Color Percentages - Healthline, An Overview of Eye Color Percentages Across the World - MyMS Eye Care, What is the Most Common Eye Color? A lower level of melanin allows more light to reflect off the eye; the blue color is the resulting shade. And when you meet a red head with blue eyes, you are looking at the rarest colour combination of all for human beings. [4] This is the same scattering that accounts for the blue appearance of the sky. While ocular melanomas may happen at any age, the risk goes up as you get older. Blue eyes have been common across Europe since prehistoric times. As estimated by the United Nations, the world currently has over 8 billion people, and every one of them is different from one another. Research has shown that lighter iris colors are associated with: A higher risk of ocular uveal melanoma (a type of eye cancer), No difference in the risk of developing age-related macular degeneration. Blue eyes actually didn't exist 10,000 years ago. Perhaps not surprising, at the very bottom of the list with an approximate 16 percent blue-eyed population sits the United States and Spain. Germans are only slightly more likely to have blue eyes than intermediate (hazel, green, etc.) Just 2.2 percent of male CEOs had blond hair, a 2005 study found. The world is a beautiful, diverse place, full of unique cultures and individuals. As these are the rarest hair and eye colors in the world, Finland seems to have the majority of those, leaving only 7-10% of people having brown eyes. Eiberg studied the DNA of 800 men and women with blue eyes from varying countries ranging from "fair-skinned, blond-haired Scandinavians to dark-skinned, blue-eyed people living in Turkey and . [100] There are three pigment colors that determine, depending on their proportion, the outward appearance of the iris, along with structural color. Because melanocyte cells continually produce pigment, in theory eye color can be changed. . A global view of the OCA2-HERC2 region and pigmentation. [87] The ocular albino also lacks normal amounts of melanin in the retina as well, which allows more light than normal to reflect off the retina and out of the eye. Its the dominant eye color in people with Native American and African ancestry, as well as those with family trees that trace back to Asia, the Middle East, Central or South America and other nations where brown eye color is the most common. The genetics of eye color are so complex that almost any parent-child combination of eye colors can occur. WorldAtlas. 2012;131(5):683-96. doi:10.1007/s00439-011-1110-x. This is why regular eye exams repay your investment many times over. European Americans with recent Celtic and Germanic ancestry account for 16% of people with green eyes. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer -- 48 percent of female CEOs on the S&P 500 sport blonde locks. Protecting your eyes and getting regular check ups is important no matter the color of your irises. The macula, which is at the retina's center, is susceptible to damage as you age. In areas where there is a lot of sun, more melanin is extracted by melanocytes, and skin, and eyes, together with hair color are darker. Eye color is a polygenic phenotypic character determined by two factors: the pigmentation of the eye's iris[1][2] and the frequency-dependence of the scattering of light by the turbid medium in the stroma of the iris. Blue-eyed humans have a single, common ancestor. When one iris has a different color from the other, it is complete Heterochromia. According to medical science, people with light-colored eyes such as blue, green or grey have a higher risk of eye cancer. It shows up in about 9% of Americans but only 2% of the world's population. This means everyone with blue eyes has one thing in commonthey're all related. [37][39][42][44], Around 18% of the US population and 5% of the world population have hazel eyes. The highest percentages of fair-haired people can be found around the Baltic Sea (e.g. In humans, this pigmentation of the iris depends on the melanin concentration in the iris pigment epithelium, it's content within the iris stroma, as well as the cellular density of the stroma. Only about 8 % to 10% of the world's population has blue eyes. If you have blue eyes it does not mean that your iris is actually colored blue. As far as researchers can tell, this was the first person with blue eyes, and everyone who has blue eyes today is a (very) distant relative of this ancient human. The content on this site is for informational purposes only. While eye color is not a defining characteristic of a person, it can be interesting to see how the distribution of different colors varies from place to place. Hazel eyes are most common in North Africa, the Middle East, Brazil, and Spain. When it comes to first impressions, the little things make all the difference. Denmark, the Polish coast and the Baltic states), making it in effect an almost entirely blonde-bounded lake. Sorry, no results has been found matching your query. That's called phototoxicity. At the end, what we got was a blonde map of Europe. The color can be from the very pale blond (caused by a patchy, scarce distribution of pigment) to reddish "strawberry" blond or golden-brownish ("sandy") blond . Less melanin, the eyes are blue. Simply put, in order for someone to have blue eyes and blond hair, both of the alleles combined must be recessive in order to show up. Blue eyes are the second most common eye color in the world. Scientists assume that this genetic mutation might have happened somewhat between 5,000 and 3,000 ago, under the assumption that it was an evolutionary adaptation connected to competition for mates. At one time, it was believed that eye color, blue eyes included, was a simple genetic trait. A team of scientists has tracked down a genetic mutation that leads to blue eyes. SEE RELATED: How color contact lenses can make anyone's eyes blue. Different studies have shown that people with lighter iris color have higher chances of "age-related macular degeneration" than those with darker ones. Close to 3% of people in the world have gray eyes. Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue Crystal GayleIt was released in June 1977 and reached Number 1 on the Country Billboard Charts, Number 2 on the Billboard Ho. For centuries, it's been noted that blue eyes are considered more attractive than other eye colors. A study in Rotterdam (2009) found that it was possible to predict eye color with more than 90% accuracy for brown and blue using just six SNPs. "Why Edinburgh residents are likely to be blue-eyed", "Genetic determinants of hair, eye and skin pigmentation in Europeans", "Eye Color Percentage for Across the Globe", "Is there any difference in the photobiological properties of melanins isolated from human blue and brown eyes? [67], Like blue eyes, gray eyes have a dark epithelium at the back of the iris and a relatively clear stroma at the front. [12], Eye color is an inherited trait determined by multiple genes. [88] This uncommon condition usually results due to uneven melanin content. The hazel eye color is primarily due to the combination of a decent amount of melanin and Rayleigh scattering. Genetic research suggests that until about 10,000 years ago, pretty much everyone had brown eyes. [7] Humans and other animals have many phenotypic variations in eye color. How eye color develops and why it changes. A person suffering from uveitis requires immediate medical attention to control the inflammation and prevent vision loss. Both parents have to pass along the blue eye gene in order for their child to have blue eyes. Contact lenses can give your eyes a hazel appearance. [28] In many parts of the world, it is nearly the only iris color present. Red hair is . Home Improvement / story. Diabetes Metab Res Rev. [56] The authors suggest that the mutation may have arisen in the northwestern part of the Black Sea region, and add that it is "difficult to calculate the age of the mutation. At first, you may not notice that you have a cataract. ", Blue eyes in lemurs and humans: same phenotype, different genetic mechanism, SKIN/HAIR/EYE PIGMENTATION, VARIATION IN, 1; SHEP1 - 227220, Howard Hughes Medical Institute: Ask A Scientist, "An Ocularist's Approach to Human Iris Synthesis", "Admixture in Latin America: Geographic Structure, Phenotypic Diversity and Self-Perception of Ancestry Based on 7,342 Individuals", "Iris melanocyte numbers in Asian, African American, and Caucasian irides", "Iris color and intraocular pressure: the Blue Mountains Eye Study", "Induction of tyrosinase gene transcription in human iris organ cultures exposed to latanoprost", "Race, iris color, and age-related macular degeneration", "Iris color as a prognostic factor in ocular melanoma", Blue Eyes Versus Brown Eyes: A Primer on Eye Color. Region and pigmentation in theory eye color have higher chances of `` age-related macular degeneration '' than those darker... Percentage of blond hair, a 2005 study found also eye and hair color the having... 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