What Ethnicity Has Brown Hair And Brown Eyes?
Pieter Maas
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Everyone! It’s mainly Southern Europeans that have Brown hair and Brown eyes,But other Europeans do have Brown hair and Brown eyes,There is Scandinavians with Brown hair and Brown eyes not all Scandinavians have Blonde hair and Blue eyes it’s a myth.
Where do brown eyes and brown hair come from?
Is eye color connected to hair color? Yes, it is! You might also notice that people with brown hair typically have brown eyes. Skin color also often fits in this trend: people with lighter hair and skin often have light eyes. And people with darker hair and skin usually have dark eyes.
- The color of our hair, skin, and eyes is determined by the same thing: the amount of pigment they have.
- The pigment that causes dark hair, skin, and eyes is called melanin,
- Melanin is made in special cells in the body called melanocytes.
- If your melanocytes produce a lot of melanin, you’re likely to have darker skin, hair, and eyes.
If your melanocytes don’t make much melanin you’ll have lighter color skin, hair, and eyes. But you asked about blue eyes specifically, not just light-colored ones. Well this gets into why we only see brown, blue, and green eyes (typically). to learn more about some rare eye colors.
- The iris of your eye (the colored part) is where melanin can be found.
- People with dark eyes have a lot of melanin in their iris.
- This dark melanin pigment makes the eyes look brown.
- And since melanin can absorb light, they look even darker! But what about blue? Your eyes can’t make a blue pigment, so why do we see different colors? It turns out blue eyes aren’t actually colored blue! This is the same way that the sky and water aren’t actually blue, even though it appears that way to us.
This blue color is made by light scattering when it hits blue eyes (or the sky or ocean!). The blue color in eyes and water is made by scattering light. Image from Eyes with no melanin scatter all the light, making them appear blue. An iris with a lot of melanin absorbs light, making it appear darker. And an iris that has some melanin will absorb some light and scatter the rest, making it appear green.
Green eyes have some brown pigment that absorbs some of the light and scatters the rest. Image from There’s another layer to this. The production of melanin is determined by your DNA. We generally talk about different traits as independent. For example, whether you are tall or short does not affect whether you need glasses! But the genes for eye, skin, and hair color are different.
These genes are tightly “linked”, meaning that they’re usually all inherited together. This is why people typically have either all light features, or all dark features. It’s still possible to get a combination of shades of hair, eyes, and skin, but it’s less likely. You’ve probably noticed that all people in certain regions of the world tend to either have lighter or darker skin, hair, and eyes (complexions).
That’s because if two parents have lighter complexions then they will pass on the melanin producing genes that produce only a little bit of melanin. If two parents have different complexions, these genes can get mixed around a bit. If one parent has a darker complexion and the other has a lighter complexion, then their children could have a mix of light or dark hair, eyes, and skin. Parents with different complexions can have kids with intermediate colors. Image from Imagine if there was a region where most people had lighter complexions. As the population grows and people have babies, the genes for less melanin will become more common.
What ethnicity are brown eyes?
Brown – Light brown iris can be found in Europe, West Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and among the Americas. With few exceptions, all mammals have brown or darkly-pigmented irises. In humans, brown is by far the most common eye color, with approximately 79% of people in the world having it.
- Brown eyes result from a relatively high concentration of melanin in the stroma of the iris, which causes light of both shorter and longer wavelengths to be absorbed.
- Dark brown eyes are dominant in humans.
- In many parts of the world, it is nearly the only iris color present.
- Brown eyes are common in Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, West Asia, Oceania, Africa and the Americas,
Light or medium-pigmented brown eyes can also be commonly found in South Europe, among the Americas, and parts of Central Asia, West Asia and South Asia,
How common is brown hair and brown eyes?
If you have the rarest hair and eye color combination, you’re one in a million—or more! – If you have dark brown hair and brown eyes, you have something in common with most people around the globe. According to the World Atlas, between 75% and 85% of the world’s population has dark brown or black hair, and 70% to 79% of people have brown eyes.
- So what are the rarest hair and eye color combinations? To understand that, we need to understand a bit of genetics.
- There’s a lot more to it than the simple dominant and recessive traits we learned about in high school biology.
- Those lessons taught us that different versions of a gene can be dominant (what you see) or recessive (what you don’t see), and they helped explain fun facts like why some people are born with blue eyes versus brown or green.
But that’s a simplistic view of eye color, and determining hair color is even more complex. According to Julie Kaplan, MD, a physician at the Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Personalized Genetic Healthcare, your hair color in particular is tied to variations in a specific gene.
Where do brown eyes come from country?
The most common – It probably comes as no surprise that the most common eye color around the world is brown. A whopping 55 to 79 percent of the worldwide population has brown eyes! In fact, about 10,000 years ago, researchers believe we all had brown eyes.
Where does the brown eyes gene come from?
Is eye color determined by genetics? A person’s eye color results from pigmentation of a structure called the iris, which surrounds the small black hole in the center of the eye (the pupil) and helps control how much light can enter the eye. The color of the iris ranges on a continuum from very light blue to dark brown.
- Most of the time eye color is categorized as blue, green/hazel, or brown.
- Brown is the most frequent eye color worldwide.
- Eye color is determined by variations in a person’s genes.
- Most of the genes associated with eye color are involved in the production, transport, or storage of a pigment called melanin.
Eye color is directly related to the amount of melanin in the front layers of the iris. People with brown eyes have a large amount of melanin in the iris, while people with blue eyes have much less of this pigment. A particular region on plays a major role in eye color.
- Within this region, there are two genes located very close together: and HERC2,
- The protein produced from the OCA2 gene, known as the P protein, is involved in the maturation of melanosomes, which are cellular structures that produce and store melanin.
- The P protein therefore plays a crucial role in the amount and quality of melanin that is present in the iris.
Several common variations (polymorphisms) in the OCA2 gene reduce the amount of functional P protein that is produced. Less P protein means that less melanin is present in the iris, leading to blue eyes instead of brown in people with a polymorphism in this gene.
- A region of the nearby HERC2 gene known as intron 86 contains a segment of DNA that controls the activity (expression) of the OCA2 gene, turning it on or off as needed.
- At least one polymorphism in this area of the HERC2 gene has been shown to reduce the expression of OCA2 and decrease P protein production, leading to less melanin in the iris and lighter-colored eyes.
Several other genes play smaller roles in determining eye color. Some of these genes are also involved in skin and hair coloring. Genes with reported roles in eye color include ASIP, IRF4, SLC24A4, SLC24A5,, TPCN2,, and, The effects of these genes likely combine with those of OCA2 and HERC2 to produce a continuum of eye colors in different people.
- Researchers used to think that eye color was determined by a single gene and followed a simple inheritance pattern in which brown eyes were dominant to blue eyes.
- Under this model, it was believed that parents who both had blue eyes could not have a child with brown eyes.
- However, later studies showed that this model was too simplistic.
Although it is uncommon, parents with blue eyes can have children with brown eyes. The inheritance of eye color is more complex than originally suspected because multiple genes are involved. While a child’s eye color can often be predicted by the eye colors of his or her parents and other relatives, genetic variations sometimes produce unexpected results.
Several disorders that affect eye color have been described. is characterized by severely reduced pigmentation of the iris, which causes very light-colored eyes and significant problems with vision. Another condition called affects the pigmentation of the skin and hair in addition to the eyes. Affected individuals tend to have very light-colored irises, fair skin, and white or light-colored hair.
Both ocular albinism and oculocutaneous albinism result from mutations in genes involved in the production and storage of melanin. Another condition called heterochromia is characterized by different-colored eyes in the same individual. Heterochromia can be caused by genetic changes or by a problem during eye development, or it can be acquired as a result of a disease or injury to the eye. Sturm RA, Duffy DL, Zhao ZZ, Leite FP, Stark MS, Hayward NK, Martin NG, Montgomery GW. A single SNP in an evolutionary conserved region within intron 86 of the HERC2 gene determines human blue-brown eye color. Am J Hum Genet.2008 Feb;82(2):424-31. doi: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2007.11.005.
- Epub 2008 Jan 24. PubMed:,
- Free full-text available from PubMed Central:,
- Sturm RA, Larsson M.
- Genetics of human iris colour and patterns.
- Pigment Cell Melanoma Res.2009 Oct;22(5):544-62.
- Doi: 10.1111/j.1755-148X.2009.00606.x.
- Epub 2009 Jul 8. Review. PubMed:,
- White D, Rabago-Smith M.
- Genotype-phenotype associations and human eye color.
J Hum Genet.2011 Jan;56(1):5-7. doi: 10.1038/jhg.2010.126. Epub 2010 Oct 14. Review. PubMed: : Is eye color determined by genetics?
What does it mean if you have brown hair and brown eyes?
Both brown eyes and dark hair are dominant genetic traits, if you have two heterozygous parents, there is a 3/4 chance that you will have the dominant trait. If you have a heterozygous parent and a homozygous dominant parent, all of the children will have the dominant trait.
What color eyes do the Dutch have?
The Colour of your Eyes What determines your eye colour ??There are a lot of different eye colours in humans but some are rarer than others. Just look around you and take a good look at peoples eye colour. There is a high chance you will notice a lot of people with brown eyes. Brown is the most common eye colour In the US only 1 out of 6 people have a light (blue) eye colour. The brown eye colour in the US is the most prevalent. No surprise, because brown is also the dominant colour. In other countries, especially in northern Europe, brown is less common.
Estonia for example is a very light eyed country with almost 98% having blue eyes !.Africa is very brownThe further you go to the south, the more chance there is that you will find a person with brown eyes. In southern Europe for instance, there is on average an 80% chance you will find a brown eyed person.
Lighter eyes are also in southern Europe (Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece) less common. Further south, going to Africa, light eyes have almost disappeared.
Light eyes in Scandinavia Green eyes are rare
Scandinavians tend to have a very light appearance. Light eyes are definitely the standard in these northern countries. Sweden, Norway and Denmark all have high percentages of light eyed people. Also Finland and Iceland are extremely light with almost 90% of them having light eyes (green, grey and blue).
Other “northern” countries like The Netherlands, Scotland and Germany have light eyed peoples too. In The Netherlands approximately 80% of the inhabitants have green or blue eyes. Germany (especially the northern part of the country) follows with almost 70% having lighter eye colours.Within the “light” eyed population, the green eyes are outnumbered by the blue eyes.
Green eyes are dominant over the blue eye colour but there are only very few people that carry the genes responsible for green eyes. Only 1-2% of the entire human population have green eyes. Green eyes can look very different. They can be very dark, almost brown.
Sometimes they are very light: almost neon. It all depends on the amount and type of melanin inside the iris. If you have a lot of melanin, your eyes look darker and if you have only a tiny bit, your eyes tend to look very light (bright). Light green eyes are most common in Iceland, The Netherlands, Scotland, Ireland, Estonia and Scandinavia.
Dark green eyes can be found all over Europe, the US and even in Pakistan. Light green eyesGreen eyes and red hair Scientists suspect there is a relation between red hair and green eyes. It looks like there is a high correlation between those two human traits.
Having red hair colour is also very unique (and recessive). Only 1 – 2 % of the entire human population have natural red hair. Of course, not only red hair coexists with green eyes-also blondes and darker hair colours can have green eyes (or the other way around). Green eyes and genderNormally, you would expect a 50/50 gender variation between the eye colours (blue, brown), but scientists have found a positive correlation between being a woman and having the green eye colour.
Why green eyes are more found in women is still unknown and it is not certain a gender differentiation actually exists. The findings could be biased somehow. red hair, green eyes and being male: the odds are very low Hazel eyes are Green eyes? Some people confuse hazel eyes with green eyes. Hazel eyes are also very rare but are different than green eyes. First of all, hazel eyes have more melanin. They look more brownish and are overall a bit darker, sometimes with a golden tint.
People with hazel eyes often notice a considerable change in their eye colour, especially when a lot of light reflect on their eyes. Secondly, some green eyes have a lot of yellow pigment in them. Hazel eyes share this yellow pigmentation hence the confusion. Where do green eyes come from? Green eyes can be found anywhere but you will find them most of the time in Europe.
Some people believe green eyes came to existence due to a mixture of blue and brown eyes. This idea became popular because a lot of green eyes can be found in areas where brown and blue eyes came together. When we look at the map, the highest percentage of green eyes can be found in Scotland.
Ireland also has (relative) a lot of green eyed inhabitants. Green eyes have lipochrome. This lipochrome (also known as feomelanin) is a yellowish pigment. People with green eyes and especially those with amber coloured eyes have a lot of this yellow lipochrome inside their irises. Those with blue, brown or grey eyes usually don’t have any lipochrome.
When you have a lot of lipochrome inside your iris, you might have amber eye colour. When you only have a small portion of this yellow pigment, your eyes might look a bit more green/blue-ish. The combination of the yellow pigment and low amount of melanin gives rise to light green eyes.
When you have a moderate amount of melanin but also lipochrome, your eyes probably look darker green. When you only have a low amount of melanin (and no lipochrome), your eyes look blue. Heterochromia Iridum Some people have a truly unique thing going on with their eyes: they have more than one colour! When one eye has a different colour than the other; it is called heterochromia iridum.
When only a small portion of the iris has a different colour, it is called: partial heterochromia. : The Colour of your Eyes
What is the most common European eye color?
Most common eye color? The browns have it. – Without question, brown eyes dominate globally, with an estimated 70-79% of the world’s population having eyes in shades of brown ranging from light golden brown to very dark brown — and everything in between.
Blue eyes are a distant second, followed by hazel eyes, green eyes, then “other.” This last category includes amber eyes, gray eyes and even violet eyes. The most common eye colors depend largely on geographic location. For example, Asians typically have brown eyes, while Europeans are more likely to have eyes of blue or other lighter hues.
The website WorldAtlas.com takes a stab at estimating the breakdown of eye colors worldwide. Their numbers:
Brown: 70-79% Blue: 8-10% Hazel: 5% Green: 2% Other: 9%
The stats for the United States shake out a bit differently. A poll conducted for the American Academy of Ophthalmology resulted in the following percentages:
Brown: 45% Blue: 27% Hazel: 18% Green: 9% Other: 1%
That the majority of Americans have light eyes is likely a reflection of the country’s earliest immigration patterns, with many new inhabitants coming from European countries where blue eyes dominate. At the same time, nearly half of the U.S. population has brown eyes.
It’s 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. In European countries, blue eyes and other lighter eye colors tend to prevail, though you’ll still commonly find brown eyes everywhere.
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.
What does it mean if you have brown hair and brown eyes?
Both brown eyes and dark hair are dominant genetic traits, if you have two heterozygous parents, there is a 3/4 chance that you will have the dominant trait. If you have a heterozygous parent and a homozygous dominant parent, all of the children will have the dominant trait.
Where does the brown eyes gene come from?
Is eye color determined by genetics? A person’s eye color results from pigmentation of a structure called the iris, which surrounds the small black hole in the center of the eye (the pupil) and helps control how much light can enter the eye. The color of the iris ranges on a continuum from very light blue to dark brown.
- Most of the time eye color is categorized as blue, green/hazel, or brown.
- Brown is the most frequent eye color worldwide.
- Eye color is determined by variations in a person’s genes.
- Most of the genes associated with eye color are involved in the production, transport, or storage of a pigment called melanin.
Eye color is directly related to the amount of melanin in the front layers of the iris. People with brown eyes have a large amount of melanin in the iris, while people with blue eyes have much less of this pigment. A particular region on plays a major role in eye color.
- Within this region, there are two genes located very close together: and HERC2,
- The protein produced from the OCA2 gene, known as the P protein, is involved in the maturation of melanosomes, which are cellular structures that produce and store melanin.
- The P protein therefore plays a crucial role in the amount and quality of melanin that is present in the iris.
Several common variations (polymorphisms) in the OCA2 gene reduce the amount of functional P protein that is produced. Less P protein means that less melanin is present in the iris, leading to blue eyes instead of brown in people with a polymorphism in this gene.
- A region of the nearby HERC2 gene known as intron 86 contains a segment of DNA that controls the activity (expression) of the OCA2 gene, turning it on or off as needed.
- At least one polymorphism in this area of the HERC2 gene has been shown to reduce the expression of OCA2 and decrease P protein production, leading to less melanin in the iris and lighter-colored eyes.
Several other genes play smaller roles in determining eye color. Some of these genes are also involved in skin and hair coloring. Genes with reported roles in eye color include ASIP, IRF4, SLC24A4, SLC24A5,, TPCN2,, and, The effects of these genes likely combine with those of OCA2 and HERC2 to produce a continuum of eye colors in different people.
Researchers used to think that eye color was determined by a single gene and followed a simple inheritance pattern in which brown eyes were dominant to blue eyes. Under this model, it was believed that parents who both had blue eyes could not have a child with brown eyes. However, later studies showed that this model was too simplistic.
Although it is uncommon, parents with blue eyes can have children with brown eyes. The inheritance of eye color is more complex than originally suspected because multiple genes are involved. While a child’s eye color can often be predicted by the eye colors of his or her parents and other relatives, genetic variations sometimes produce unexpected results.
- Several disorders that affect eye color have been described.
- Is characterized by severely reduced pigmentation of the iris, which causes very light-colored eyes and significant problems with vision.
- Another condition called affects the pigmentation of the skin and hair in addition to the eyes.
- Affected individuals tend to have very light-colored irises, fair skin, and white or light-colored hair.
Both ocular albinism and oculocutaneous albinism result from mutations in genes involved in the production and storage of melanin. Another condition called heterochromia is characterized by different-colored eyes in the same individual. Heterochromia can be caused by genetic changes or by a problem during eye development, or it can be acquired as a result of a disease or injury to the eye. Sturm RA, Duffy DL, Zhao ZZ, Leite FP, Stark MS, Hayward NK, Martin NG, Montgomery GW. A single SNP in an evolutionary conserved region within intron 86 of the HERC2 gene determines human blue-brown eye color. Am J Hum Genet.2008 Feb;82(2):424-31. doi: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2007.11.005.
Epub 2008 Jan 24. PubMed:, Free full-text available from PubMed Central:, Sturm RA, Larsson M. Genetics of human iris colour and patterns. Pigment Cell Melanoma Res.2009 Oct;22(5):544-62. doi: 10.1111/j.1755-148X.2009.00606.x. Epub 2009 Jul 8. Review. PubMed:, White D, Rabago-Smith M. Genotype-phenotype associations and human eye color.
J Hum Genet.2011 Jan;56(1):5-7. doi: 10.1038/jhg.2010.126. Epub 2010 Oct 14. Review. PubMed: : Is eye color determined by genetics?