One of the first things we notice when we meet someone is their eyes: the color, the shape, the expression, the eyelashes, the eyebrows. We're focusing on color only here, because it's much more complex than you might expect.
How common is your eye color?
It is difficult to determine exact statistics for human eye colors, but in general, brown eyes, whether light or dark, are the most common around the world.
Almost all people in Northern Europe have blue eyes, but this number decreases dramatically everywhere else, to the point that blue eyes are practically non-existent in South America, Asia, and Africa.
blue eyes
Our eye color is determined by several different genes, most notably OCA2 and HERC2. Because there are multiple genes involved, eye color can't always be predicted. Generally, brown eyes are the most dominant and blue eyes the most recessive, but blue-eyed parents sometimes have children with brown eyes.
One of the most interesting things researchers have discovered about eye color is that blue eyes are the result of a single mutation to the OCA2 gene that stops it from producing brown eyes. This means that everyone with blue eyes shares a common ancestor from between six and ten thousand years ago.
eye color function
Interestingly, blue eyes come from a single person with a genetic mutation, but they come with a slight flaw. The lack of melanin in the irises makes people with blue eyes more susceptible to damage from ultraviolet rays, which means it's essential to wear sunglasses if you have blue eyes.
Most common eye colors according to estimated percentage of the world population
Brown in its shades from light brown to very dark brown close to black: from 55 percent to 79 percent
Blue: 8% to 10%.
Venice: 5 percent.
Amber: 5 percent.
Green: 2 percent.
