What Your Eye Color Can Say About You and Your Ancestry

 We’ve all heard the saying that the eyes are “the mirror of the soul,” but could this idea be more concrete than we thought? What is the real story behind your eye color, and where did the slew of seemingly endless shades really come from? Whatever the answer may be, one thing’s for sure, eye color is entirely unique, like a fingerprint. That is, nobody else has exactly the same eye color as you. In fact, some recent studies show that our eye color is much more complex than we once thought.

However strange it may sound, all people had only brown eyes at one point in history. Then, one day, a genetic mutation happened in the gene that determines the color of the eyes. This mutation reduced the production of melanin to the point where it wasn’t enough to color the eyes brown — and that’s how blue eyes first came in existence.

Today, brown is still the most widespread eye color in the world. Thanks to higher levels of melanin, brown eyes are more resistant to some types of eye diseases. Light brown eyes are most common in the Americas, West Asia, and Europe, while dark brown eyes are most frequently found in Africa, Southeast Asia, and East Asia.

A single mutation in the genes that produce melanin gave us countless variations of blues, greens, grays, and hazels. What’s more, this genetic mutation has been linked to one common ancestor. Scientists believe that this ancestor was a European from the Black Sea region who probably lived between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago.

The percentage of blue-eyed people in Europe today ranges between 20% and 40% while only 8% to 10% of people worldwide have blue eyes. Blue eyes are most common in Northern Europe. A relatively high percentage (27%) of blue-eyed people in America is partially thanks to Americans with Eastern European, Irish, and British ancestry.

Scientists theorize that the evolution of eye color corresponds to the migrations of our ancestors from warmer to colder climates. Today, the widest variety of eye colors can be found among the Europeans, ranging from light blue to dark brown. The reason why dark-colored eyes are more common in hotter climates, such as Asia and Africa, is melanin, which protects the eyes from the sun and UV damage.

Less than 1% of people have gray eyes.

Until recently, it was believed that a single gene was responsible for the color of our eyes. But, as it turned out, there are about 16 genes at play when determining eye color, which can produce some rare and unique hues, like gray. Although gray eyes may appear “blue” at first glance, unlike pure blue eyes, they tend to have specks of brown and gold. 

Less than 1% of the world’s population has gray eyes, which makes them one of the least common eye colors. The shades of gray eyes may vary from greenish to smokey blue to hazel-brown, which often depends on the environment, especially lighting. They are most common in Northern and Eastern Europe.