Eye Color (2024)

FAQs

What is the rarest color in your eye? ›

Of those four, green is the rarest. It shows up in about 9% of Americans but only 2% of the world's population. Hazel/amber is the next rarest color after green. Blue is the second most common and brown tops the list, found in 45% of the U.S. population and possibly almost 80% worldwide.

Instead, gray eyes topped the chart with an average rating of 7.4, followed by blue and green eyes each scoring an average of 7.3. 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.

Brown Eyes Are Associated With Few if Any Health Risks

“In general, everyone should make sure to wear 100 percent UV-blocking sunglasses when outdoors to minimize their chances of developing cataracts and other eye diseases,” Abugo advises.

The more melanin present, the darker the eye color. However, the amount of melanin varies in each person, which is why no two people have the same exact eye color.

Red and violet

Although the deep blue eyes of some people such as Elizabeth Taylor can appear purple or violet at certain times, "true" violet-colored eyes occur only due to albinism. Eyes that appear red or violet under certain conditions due to albinism are less than 1 percent of the world's population.

People with albinism have little or no melanin in their eyes. When they have very little melanin in their irises, they can have very pale blue or gray eyes. When there's no melanin in either layer of their irises, the blood vessels in their retinas are a lot more visible, making their eyes look pink or red.

The allele for brown eyes is the most dominant allele and is always dominant over the other two alleles and the allele for green eyes is always dominant over the allele for blue eyes, which is always recessive.

We tested whether eye color influences perception of trustworthiness. Facial photographs of 40 female and 40 male students were rated for perceived trustworthiness. Eye color had a significant effect, the brown-eyed faces being perceived as more trustworthy than the blue-eyed ones.

Eye color doesn't significantly affect the sharpness of your vision, but it can affect visual comfort in certain situations. It all comes down to the density of the pigment melanin within your iris, which determines what colors of light are absorbed or reflected.

What eye color has the best night vision? ›

People with blue eyes may have better sight in dim conditions than those with brown eyes, according to LJMU research reported in New Scientist. The theory could explain why the colour has persisted in certain populations, for example in Northern Europe where skies are darker.

Research Findings on Bright Lights and Eye Damage

In the Chesapeake Bay Waterman Study, which analyzed fishermen exposed to bright light reflected off the water every day, blue light exposure was found to increase the risk of macular degeneration.

While the global data on eye colors is limited, red and violet eyes are likely the rarest eye colors since they only affect a small group of people with albinism. But if you exclude eye colors brought on by albinism, then green and gray are likely the rarest.

Anyone can be born with hazel eyes, but it's most common in people of Brazilian, Middle Eastern, North African, or Spanish descent. When eyes are hazel, they are brown mixed with amber and green.

In general, the allele for brown eyes is DOMINANT over the allele for blue eyes (which is then called the RECESSIVE allele).

Without a doubt, grey eyes are one of the rarest eye colors in the world. But just how rare are grey eyes? We can estimate that less than 1% of people in the U.S. have them. Therefore, it's fair to say that the chances you've seen natural grey eyes in person are incredibly slim.

Of the less common eye colors, pink and red eyes are considered to be the most unique in the world, giving new meaning to the word “rare.” Only one in every 20,000 people have a form of albinism, according to the National Institutes of Health, and even fewer have red-tinted eyes.

Green eyes are the most rare eye color in the world. Only about 2 percent of people in the world have naturally green eyes. Green eyes are a genetic mutation that results in low levels of melanin, though more melanin than in blue eyes.

About 27% of the United States population has blue eyes, according to a 2014 poll by the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Blue eyes may not be the rarest eye color, but they aren't the most common one, either. The percentage of a country's population with blue eyes varies widely, depending on where you're looking.