In fact, in Ireland and Scotland, more than three-fourths of the population has blue or green eyes – 86 percent! Many factors go into having green eyes. Sixteen separate genes have been identified as contributing to eye color.
Green eyes are the rarest color, with only 2 percent of the world population naturally having green eyes. The largest concentration of green eyes is found in Ireland and Scotland, where 86 percent of the population has blue or green eyes.
Though a minority is still brown-eyed. The Irish have one of the highest proportions of light eyes in the world! Approximately 86% of them have blue or light eyes. Though the proportion of blue eyes does vary by region with very slight differences, in every single region of Ireland, at least half have blue eyes.
Irish females tend to have lighter shades of hair (blond/red) than Irish males. However they tend to have more green than blue eyes when compared to their male counterparts. Both groups tend to have brown eyes in a small minority. Only 14% have brown eyes.
In Ireland blue eyes are most common in Connacht, where 53% people have them. The figures are only slightly lower elsewhere, with 52% in Leinster and 50% each in Ulster and Munster. The research was conducted by ScotlandsDNA, a company that researches the genetic origins of Scots and those of Scots descent.
The Celtic people had a broad range of eye colors, such as blue, light blue, grey, and green, as well as the more common brown. The blue, grey, and green are thought to be mutations that occurred over thousands of years due to the Celts who lived in the far north of the world.
One physical trademark of Irish people is their olive or green-colored eyes, which are rare in other parts of the world but are pretty common in Ireland. Ireland is also one of the countries with the most green-eyed people, as more than 75% of green-eyed people have heritage in just two countries: Ireland and Scotland.
Blue eyes are most common in the UK, Ireland, Finland and Sweden. According to World Atlas, 8% - 10% of people in the world have blue eyes. Between 55% to 79% of people have brown eyes with dark brown eyes being most prominent in Africa, East Asia, and South East Asia.
Irish Characteristics and DNA
The MC1R gene has been identified by researchers as the gene responsible for red hair as well as the accompanying fair skin and tendency towards freckles. According to genetic research, genes for red hair first appeared in human beings about 40,000 to 50,000 years ago.
Now you know what is the most common hair colour in the world, but what about the rarest? The rarest natural hair colour is red, which makes up only one to two percent of the global population. You commonly see these hair colours in western and northern areas of Europe, especially Scotland and Ireland.
The Irish are generally considered to have a fair complexion.
True brown eyes are rare in the Irish race. This eye here is called a mixed Iris, which is a mix of blue and brown, so essentially it is green. There is a basic blue background with a brown/orange overlay. The iris often appears light brown to greenish brown.
At some point, you've probably wondered what the rarest eye color is. The answer is green, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO). Only about 2 percent of the world's population sport this shade.
When broken down by gender, men ranked gray, blue, and green eyes as the most attractive, while women said they were most attracted to green, hazel, and gray eyes. Despite brown eyes ranking at the bottom of our perceived attraction scale, approximately 79% of the world's population sports melanin-rich brown eyes.
The largest concentration of green eyed people is in Ireland, Scotland and Northern Europe. In Ireland and Scotland, 86% of people have either blue or green eyes. There have been 16 genes identified that contribute to eye colour.
Green eyes are most common in Northern, Western and Central Europe. Around 8–10% of men and 18–21% of women in Iceland and 6% of men and 17% of women in the Netherlands, have green eyes. Among European Americans, green eyes are most common among those of recent Celtic and Germanic ancestry with about 16%.
They were also found to have most similarity to two main ancestral sources: a 'French' component (mostly northwestern French) which reached highest levels in the Irish and other Celtic populations (Welsh, Highland Scots and Cornish) and showing a possible link to the Bretons; and a 'West Norwegian' component related to ...
Current genetic research supports the idea that people living in the Britain and Ireland are on average mainly descended from the indigenous European Paleolithic (Old Stone Age hunter gatherers) population (about 80%), with a smaller neolithic (New Stone Age farmers) input (about 20%).
As with any population, Irish people have a natural range of hair colors that are determined by genetics. In general, Irish people tend to have a range of natural hair colors that vary from dark brown to blonde, with shades of red and strawberry blonde being the most prevalent.
Other than green, the different eye colors found in Irish people are brown, blue, and grey. It is also not uncommon to see people with hazel eyes, particularly those with a green iris surrounded by a brown or amber ring near the pupils.
The largest concentration of Green-eyed people is in Ireland, Scotland, and northern Europe. 86% of people in Ireland and Scotland have blue or green eyes. Only 2% of the world's population has green eyes, the rarest of common eye color. Less than 10% of Americans have green eyes.
She said the hunter-gatherer Irish not only had dark skin, but also bright blue eyes – a combination rarely seen today. They operated mostly along the coast of the Burren gathering shellfish, and then moving inland to hunt wild boar and gather hazelnuts.
Freckles occur in people with heritage from around the world. Because they're often seen in people with red hair, freckles are commonly associated with Ireland and Scotland, where this hair color is common as well.
Written by Chauncey Olcott and George Graff, Jr., with music composed by Ernest Ball, “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” is a love letter to Ireland and its people.