The highest concentration of people with green eyes is found in Ireland, Scotland, and northern Europe. 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.
Essentially, green eyes are unique. Most common in Western, Northern, and Central Europe, green eyes often point to German or Celtic ancestry. Currently, they can be found most often in Iceland, the Netherlands, Scotland, Britain, and Scandinavia.
So where did our green-eyed ancestors come from? Most origins point to areas around the Caucasus Mountains, which link Asia and Europe. That may help explain why so many different countries and continents have had green-eyed populations for thousands of years.
Green irises have an uncommon melanin level — less than “truly” brown eyes, but more than blue eyes. This is why green eyes are so unique. And while 9% is indeed rare, green eyes have an even lower eye color percentage across the globe.
Green eyes are a genetic mutation that produces low levels of melanin, but more than blue eyes. As in blue eyes, there is no green pigment. Instead, because of the lack of melanin in the iris, more light scatters out, which make the eyes appear green.
We found that green is the most popular lens colour, with brown coming in a close second, despite it being one of the most common eye colours. Although blue and hazel are seen as the most attractive eye colours for men and women they are surprisingly the least popular.
If the brown-eyed mother carried the green allele (bG), she could pass the green allele on 50% of the time, so when married up with the father's blue allele, they could have a green-eyed child.
Each parent will pass one copy of their eye color gene to their child. In this case, the mom will always pass B and the dad will always pass b. This means all of their kids will be Bb and have brown eyes. Each child will show the mom's dominant trait.
All men inherit a Y chromosome from their father, which means all traits that are only found on the Y chromosome come from dad, not mom. The Supporting Evidence: Y-linked traits follow a clear paternal lineage.
Unlike nuclear DNA, which comes from both parents, mitochondrial DNA comes only from the mother.
If, say, my wife was also blonde and blue-eyed, would it somehow lessen the chances of our children being blonde and blue-eyed? Yes, grandparents' genes can affect how their grandchildren look.
The two main gene pairs geneticists have focused on are EYCL1 (also called the gey gene) and EYCL3 (also called the bey2 gene). The different variants of genes are referred to as alleles. The gey gene has one allele that gives rise to green eyes and one allele that gives rise to blue eyes.
The allele genes come in the form of brown, blue, or green, with brown being dominant, followed by green, and blue being the least dominant or what is called recessive. Given this information, you can determine what eye colors are dominant in the parents.
A recent survey conducted by CyberPulse, a division of Impulse Research Corporation in Los Angeles uncovered this colorful research. Intelligence was the number one trait associated with brown, the most common eye color in the U.S., by 34 percent of respondents.
Some colors stand out, and others blend into the background and we don't notice them quite as much. Red and orange seem to be the clear winner when it comes to eye-catching colors.
Violet and red are unique eye colors caused by an iris with little to no pigment. When light reflects off of the blood vessels in eyes that lack typical pigmentation, the eyes appear violet or red. Astonishing as it may seem, these eye colors occur naturally—and are extremely rare.
People with green eyes are more likely to have certain health issues. Green eyes are more prone to melanoma of the uvea, a type of eye cancer, than are dark eyes. The same is true for macular degeneration.
Disadvantages of Green Eyes
Green eyes, like blue and gray eyes, may have an increased risk for certain eye cancers. People with lighter eye colors may be more likely to develop cancer of the eye called uveal melanoma. The uvea is the middle layer of the eye. Melanoma of the uvea is an extremely rare disease.
Fair skin, hair and eyes : Neanderthals are believed to have had blue or green eyes, as well as fair skin and light hair. Having spent 300,000 years in northern latitudes, five times longer than Homo sapiens, it is only natural that Neanderthals should have developed these adaptive traits first.
Green. An estimated 2% of the world's population have green eyes, making them very rare overall. However, green eyes are very common in some parts of the world, including Ireland and Scotland. In the U.S., where many people descend from ancestors from Ireland and Scotland, about 9% of people have green eyes.
As previously mentioned, exposure to light causes your body to produce more melanin. Even if your eye color has set, your eye color could slightly change if you expose your eyes to more sunlight. As a result, your eyes might appear a darker shade of brown, blue, green, or gray, depending on your current eye color.
Eye Color Matters
Lighter-colored eyes have less pigment to protect against sun damage and UV radiation compared to darker-colored eyes. This means that people with green, hazel, or blue eyes are more sensitive to light and more susceptible to UV damage.