Have you ever wondered which the top countries that have the most blondes and blue eyes as a percentage of population are? Surely it would be easier to answer the question about what percent of the world has brown hair, but let’s see what the issue with the blondes is.
Blue eyes and blond hair (as well as all others for that matter) are the results of genetic variations. 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. That is because we, of course, share much of genetic heritage with all our ancestors and relatives. Speaking scientifically, blue eye color and natural blond hair are cause of recessive genes (actually alleles, which are forms of a gene) combination, as opposed to dominant genes which are characterised by darker eye and hair colors (of course, recessive and dominant genes are not only responsible for eye and hair color, but for other genetic inheritance as well).
But let’s not get things too scientific at this point. 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. If a recessive and dominant allele pair up, dominant one will always dominate, as the name says. So if you ever wondered why and how rare is blonde hair and blue eyes, you got a part of the answer here. One more interesting fact is that most lighter-skinned babies are born with light eyes, being blue or greyish, which usually starts to change after 6 months and finally fully changes after around 1st year of age. Iris color depends on the protein melanin which is stored in special cells, melanocytes. Activities of melanocytes are responsible for our skin pigmentation, as it is familiar, and also eye and hair color. So, if melanocytes extract just a little bit of melanin, baby’s eye color will remain light, but they usually produce much more of this protein, which causes darker eye colors.
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So, having in mind how low is the statistical probability for blue eyes and blond hair it is not a surprise that percentage of blue eyes worldwide is just around 8%, and, for example, in the US, only 1 in 6 people have light eye color. As we have noted, blonde hair and light eyes depend on the amount of melanin extracted. 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. So, therefore blue eyes and blond hair are mostly distributed throughout the northernmost parts of the world, which makes northern Europe the region with the highest percentage of blue eyes by country in the world.
Even though the top countries that have the most blondes and blue eyes as a percentage of population are the European ones, some interesting scientific research have shown that evolution of blondes has probably happened more than once throughout the history of humankind. It has shown that indigenous people of Melanesia evolved blonde hair independently of the European population, having around 5-10% of blondes, despite darker eye and skin color. 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. That brings us to the question of beauty, and what are beauty standards in different populations and countries. Since beauty is nowadays mostly the matter of a subjective opinion, there are still some standards that define someone as beautiful, but on that matter, you will find more interesting information in the article about countries with the most beautiful women in Europe and countries with the most beautiful women in the world.
Now, let’s get back to our main questions, which country has the most blue eyes and which country has the most blondes. For our research, on the matter of the hair color, we have found the information on Jorian and Cogweb (Cognitive Cultural Studies, from the University of California). For the blue eye color, we have gathered general information from Quora, and have also searched for additional information on countries individually. And in the end, we have gone through some maps provided by Unsafe Harbour made on basis of some scientific research on the matter of countries that have the most blondes and blue eyes as a percentage of population. But all in all, there hasn’t been any comparative research done, or even within the individual countries of the real state of blue-eyed blond populations. So, take these figures with a pinch of salt.
Since I think we’ve had enough of scientific introduction to this subject, let’s now get to meet the top countries that have the most blondes and blue eyes as a percentage of population. At the end, what we got was a “blonde map of Europe”. Ready?
10. UK
Blond hair percentage: 56
Blue eyes percentage: 48
Since throughout the British history there were many migrations and fluctuations of peoples on its territory, they have all left their trace in the faces of today’s people of Britain. Even though there is a high number of blond and blue-eyed people living in Britain today, the highest percentage of blue eyes is recorded in South East Scotland with 57%. Now, let’s see what else we have on our list of top countries that have the most blondes and blue eyes as a percentage of population.
Pixabay/Public Domain
9. Germany
Blond hair percentage: 66
Blue eyes percentage: 53
Although the percentage of blonde blue-eyed people in Germany is very high, the highest concentration of these characteristics is in the north of the country, at least according to the resources we have used for this research.
Pixabay/Public Domain
8. Netherlands
Blond hair percentage: 66
Blue eyes percentage: 50-80
Netherlands stands for the tallest country in the world and is also the top countries that have the most blondes and blue eyes as a percentage of population. Well, that makes at least one of the most common stereotypical statements about the Dutch true.
Pixabay/Public Domain
7. Latvia
Blond hair percentage: 66
Blue eyes percentage: 80
As being one of the Baltic peoples, Latvians expectedly have very high percentage of the blue-eyed and blond population. Although most common eye color in Latvia that ranks 7th on our list of top countries that have the most blondes and blue eyes as a percentage of population, 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.
Pixabay/Public Domain
6. Denmark
Blond hair percentage: 68
Blue eyes percentage: 50-80
Since we are slowly coming to the epicenter top countries that have the most blondes and blue eyes as a percentage of population, Denmark is the first country of Vikings that we come by. Viking stereotypes for being tall, strong, blond and blue-eyed are confirmed at least for the last two matters in the case of Denmark. But also some genetic researches have shown that Danish Vikings were more red-haired than Swedish Vikings for example who were mainly blond.
Pixabay/Public Domain
5. Iceland
Blond hair percentage: 70
Blue eyes percentage: 90
Apart from the most usual hair being blond, and eye color blue, there are all combinations and variations of colors on Iceland. One more usual hair color is red, and also green eye color, being among the rarest in the world.
Pixabay/Public Domain
4. Estonia
Blond hair percentage: 70
Blue eyes percentage: 64
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. Nevertheless, both figures leave Estonia among the top countries that have the most blondes and blue eyes as a percentage of population.
Pixabay/Public Domain
3. Norway
Blond hair percentage: 75
Blue eyes percentage: 50-80
Since Norway is on the 3rd place of the top countries that have the most blondes and blue eyes as a percentage of population, there are still many darker native Norwegians than it could be expected. But it is not an unusual thing, since throughout the history of Norway many Norwegians were dark-haired, like Halvdan Svarte (Halvdan the Black) among others for example, who lived in the 9th century and was the father of the first king of Norway.
Pixabay/Public Domain
2. Sweden
Blond hair percentage: 78
Blue eyes percentage: 70-80
As in all Scandinavian countries, and being at the top of those, most common eye color is blue and most usual hair is blond. Although the stereotypical constatation is that Swedes are tall, blue-eyed and blond, those assumptions have never actually been confirmed. That is, they certainly are not the tallest (although tall enough being behind one of the tallest countries like Germany or Netherlands), and the researches concerning eye color are not precise enough as we have noted in the introduction.
Pixabay/Public Domain
1. Finland
Blond hair percentage: 80
Blue eyes percentage: 89
Finland is the first among the top countries that have the most blondes and blue eyes as a percentage of population. 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. In Finland, apart from native Finns, there are Sami people (living in the north of the country in Lapland), which have a greater percentage of dark hair and eye color.
Pixabay/Public Domain
