What Percentage Of The World Population Has Blue Eyes?
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1. Only 8 Percent of the World’s Population Has Blue Eyes If you have got blue eyes, you might just belong to one of the world’s most exclusive groups without realising it! Since blue eyes are genetically recessive, only 8 percent of the world’s population has blue eyes.
While blue eyes are significantly less common than brown eyes worldwide, they are frequently found from nationalities located near the Baltic Sea in northern Europe.2. There is No Blue Pigment in Blue Irises The colour of our eyes depends on how much melanin is present in the iris. Blue eyes get their colour the same way water and the sky get their blue colour — they scatter light so that more blue light reflects back out.
The iris is made up of two layers. For almost everyone — even people with blue eyes — the back layer (called the pigment epithelium) has brown pigment in it. The front layer of the iris (called the stroma) is made up of overlapping fibers and cells. For people with brown eyes, some of the cells also have brown pigment in them.
- If there is no pigment at all in this front layer, the fibers scatter and absorb some of the longer wavelengths of light that come in.
- More blue light gets back out and the eyes appear to be blue.3.
- Blue Eyes are More Sensitive to Light Melanin in the iris of the eye appears to help protect the back of the eye from damage caused by UV radiation and high-energy visible “blue” light from sunlight and artificial sources of these rays.
Since blue eyes contain less melanin than green, hazel or brown eyes, photophobia is more prevalent in blue eyes compared to darker coloured eyes. For these reasons, having less melanin in your irises means that you need to protect your eyes more from the sun’s UV rays.
Therefore, it is recommended to those with blue eyes to stay out of the sun for long periods of time and try to wear protective eyewear when you are outdoors.4. All Blue-Eyed People May Have A Common Ancestor Originally we all had brown eyes, however, according to researchers at the University of Copenhagen, it appears that a genetic mutation in a single individual in Europe 6,000 to 10,000 years ago led to the development of blue eyes.
Therefore, we can conclude that this genetic mutation is the cause of eye colour of all blue-eyed humans alive on the planet today. What is the genetic mutation? A genetic mutation affecting the OCA2 gene in our chromosomes resulted in the creation of a “switch”, which “turned off” the ability to produce brown eyes.
- The OCA2 gene codes for the ‘P protein’, which is involved in the production of melanin (the pigment that determines the colour of our eyes, skin and hair).
- The “switch”, does not, however, turn off the gene entirely, but rather limits its action to reducing the production of melanin in the iris – effectively “diluting” brown eyes to blue.
According to Hans Eiberg, associate professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine from the University of Copenhagen, “From this, we can conclude that all blue-eyed individuals are linked to the same ancestor. They have all inherited the same switch at exactly the same spot in their DNA.” 5.
Blue Eyes at Birth Doesn’t Mean Blue Eyes For Life While blue eyes may be rare, they’re among the most common eye colours at birth. Since the human eye does not have its full adult amount of pigment at birth, most Caucasian babies are born with blue eyes. However, since human melanin tends to develop over time — this causes the child’s eye colour to change as more melanin is produced in the iris during early childhood.6.
People With Blue Eyes May Have a Higher Risk of Alcoholism A new study suggests that individuals with blue eyes are at a higher risk for alcohol dependency compared to those with darker eyes. Therefore, this finding adds further evidence to the idea that alcoholism has a genetic component.
A study published in American Journal of Medical Genetics, Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics found that European Americans with blue eyes had up to 83 percent higher odds of becoming dependent on alcohol, compared with matched controls who had darker eye colours. This research suggests that alcoholism has a genetic component linked to genetic sequences that determine eye colour, which may help explain the association.
However, at this stage, the reason for the correlation is still unknown and further research is required to fully understand this correlation in the findings.7. You Can’t Predict the Colour of Your Child’s Eyes Since it was once believed that eye colour — including blue eyes — was a simple genetic trait, many people used to believe that blue-eyed people could only have blue-eyed children.
Before geneticists fully understood how human eye colour inheritance works, a child’s eye colour to used be used as a paternity test — based on the assumption that you could predict a child’s eye colour if you knew the colour of the parents’ eyes and perhaps the colour of the grandparents’ eyes. But geneticists now know that this concept is far more complicated, as eye colour is influenced by an interaction of as many as 16 different genes — not just one or two genes as once thought.
Additionally, the anatomic structure of the iris can also influence eye colour to some degree. In summary, it’s impossible to know for sure if your children will have blue eyes. Even if you and your partner both have blue eyes, that’s no guarantee your child’s eyes will also be blue.
What percent of the world has GREY eyes?
Gray – Close to 3% of the world’s population have gray eyes. People with gray eyes have little or no melanin in their irises, but they have more collagen in a part of the eye called the stroma. The light scatters off the collagen in a way that makes the eyes appear gray.
What percentage of Caucasian people have blue eyes?
Blue – There is no blue pigmentation either in the iris or in the ocular fluid. Dissection reveals that the iris pigment epithelium is brownish black due to the presence of melanin, Unlike brown eyes, blue eyes have low concentrations of melanin in the stroma of the iris, which lies in front of the dark epithelium.
- Longer wavelengths of light tend to be absorbed by the dark underlying epithelium, while shorter wavelengths are reflected and undergo Rayleigh scattering in the turbid medium of the stroma.
- This is the same scattering that accounts for the blue appearance of the sky.
- 9 The result is a ” Tyndall blue” structural color that varies with external lighting conditions.
The inheritance pattern followed by blue eyes was previously assumed to be a mendelian recessive trait, however, eye color inheritance is now recognized as a polygenic trait, meaning that it is controlled by the interactions of several genes. In 2008, new research tracked down one genetic mutation that leads to blue eyes.
- Originally, we all had brown eyes” said Eiberg.
- Eiberg and colleagues suggested in a study published in Human Genetics that a mutation in the 86th intron of the HERC2 gene, which is hypothesized to interact with the OCA2 gene promoter, reduced expression of OCA2 with subsequent reduction in melanin production.
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.” Blue eyes are common in northern and eastern Europe, particularly around the Baltic Sea,
- The first blue-eyed koala known to be born in captivity
Actor Daniel Craig has the most common eye colour in the U.K. as of 2014: (blue – 48%, green – 30%, brown-22%). The same DNA sequence in the region of the OCA2 gene among blue-eyed people suggests they may have a single common ancestor. Approximately 8% to 10% of the global population have blue eyes.
A 2002 study found that the prevalence of blue eye color among the white population in the United States to be 33.8% for those born from 1936 through 1951, compared with 57.4% for those born from 1899 through 1905. As of 2006, one out of every six Americans, or 16.6% of the total US population, has blue eyes, including 22.3% of whites.
The incidence of blue eyes continues to decline among American children.56% of Slovenes have blue/green eyes.
Why were Elizabeth Taylor’s eyes purple?
Elizabeth Taylor Eyes Earrings – 
Getty Images The real answer: They were not purple at all, but a vibrant dark blue. Her eyes merely appeared to be purple when exposed to certain lighting, makeup, or clothing (and plenty of retouching of her images, we’re sure!).
Are blue eyes more common in Europe?
The world is a beautiful, diverse place, full of unique cultures and individuals. One thing that truly sets people apart is their eye color. Most researchers believe that blue-eyed individuals may be more dominant among certain populations and less present in others.
Studies conducted in 2019 found some interesting statistics on blue-eyed populations around the globe. Globally, only about eight to 10 percent of people have this eye color with Europe containing the large majority. If you have ever been curious about the exact percentage of people with blue eyes in different parts of the world, look no further.
Below is a list of the top six countries with the most blue-eyed people.
Are grey blue eyes real?
Human eyes come in many colors — brown, blue, green, hazel, amber, and even violet or gray eyes. Gray eye color is one of the loveliest and most uncommon, a trait shared by only 3% of the world’s population, The color and intensity of gray eyes varies from person to person and can include dark gray, gray-green and gray-blue.
- Eye color actually refers to the color of the iris, a ring of tissue that surrounds the pupil,
- The pupil is an opening at the center of the iris that appears black, while the white part of your eye is called the sclera,
- The color of the iris depends on the presence of a brown pigment called melanin, the same pigment that determines skin color and hair color.
Eyes with a lot of melanin are darker, and eyes with less melanin are blue, green, hazel, amber or gray. NOTE: You may see references to “grey” rather than “gray” eyes, but it’s the same eye color. “Gray” is simply the preferred spelling in American English, while “grey” is the British English spelling used primarily in the U.K.
| Do you have gray eyes? |
|---|
| Just as gray hair has become an increasingly popular trend (both treated and natural), gray eyes are rare and coveted. This unique eye color is only present in 3% of the population. So bat those gorgeous grays with pride, and make certain you take care of them with routine eye exams. People with light-colored eyes, like gray, are more sensitive to the sun and are more likely to develop a rare eye cancer called ocular melanoma. If it’s been a while, schedule an exam with an eye doctor today. |
Is blue the prettiest eye color?
Hazel is the most attractive eye colour in females – Among women, the results were somewhat less defined. While hazel was the most popular eye colour to receive a “like”, it only beat purple eyes – which aren’t naturally possible – by a single match. Only green eyes seemed to suffer at all, with only 11% of matches reached.
| Eye Colour | Total Matches | Female – % |
| Hazel | 65 | 20.19% |
| Purple | 64 | 19.88% |
| Black | 57 | 17.70% |
| Blue | 56 | 17.39% |
| Brown | 43 | 13.35% |
| Green | 37 | 11.49% |
| Total | 322 | 100% |
How rare are grey blue eyes?
What Causes Grey Eyes? Are They Rare? – Grey eyes are one of the rarest eye colors. Less than 3% of the global population has grey eyes. They’re most commonly found in people of Northern and Eastern European ancestry.8 Like all eye colors, they’re a product of the amount of melanin in the iris,
- People with light-colored eyes have very little melanin compared to those with brown-colored eyes.
- Those with green or hazel eyes have less; those with blue even less; those with grey, none at all.
- In addition, people with grey eyes have more collagen in their stroma, a layer of their iris.
- This also affects how light scatters and is what causes their eyes to appear grey rather than blue.
A person’s genes determine how much melanin they have in their iris. There are at least 16 different genes that influence eye color. Scientists are still studying exactly how these genes all interact with each other.