It is often said that between 1% and 2%, or 70 to 140 million people around the world, have red hair. England also has a significant number of people in it with red hair: 4% of its total inhabitants. 24. Subscribe for virtual tools, STEM-inspired play, creative tips and more. It is estimated that approximately 2% of the worlds population has naturally red hair. In the meantime, we thought we'd do some data collection of our own to find out where red heads are located and their vulnerability to gingerism (discrimination against people with red hair). Their hair naturally keeps its pigment longer than most colors, before eventually fading to white. Scotland is a close second, with a 6 percent redheaded population. Understanding Vaccination Progress by Country - Johns Hopkins How many redheads are there? 70 Incredible Facts About Redheads: How Much Do You Know About The Rarest Hair Color? Because of their commonly fair skin and sensitivity to ultraviolet light, redheads are more likely to develop skin cancer. Dark hair turning red can be a sign of protein deficiency. In fact, they only make . The genetics of red hair mean for a child to be a redhead, both their parents must have the mutated MC1R gene. [30] In Chinese sources, ancient Kyrgyz people were described as fair-skinned, green- or blue-eyed and red-haired people with a mixture of European and East Asian features. National Redhead Day was created in 2015 by Stephanie and Adrienne Vendetti, two red-headed sisters who wanted to celebrate their beautiful hair. About 30% of people who dye their hair at home choose to go red. The Irish red-hair population beats that at about 10% of the people living there. One study. [99] The British comedy Bo' Selecta! [129][130], In the Iliad, Achilles' hair is described as ksanths ([131]), usually translated as blonde, or golden[132] but sometimes as red or tawny. Redheads can sense changes in temperature more quickly than people with other hair colors. Kidadl is supported by you, the reader. American Hustle starlet Amy Adams is famous for her ravishing red locks, just like British songstress Florence Welch - two incredibly beautiful redheads. It's called Redhead Day. If theyre Ashkenazi Jews, about 3.6% of the women have red hair, and 10% of Jewish men have red beards. Scotland is thought by some to have the highest concentration of redheads in the world, so maybe it was an appropriate location for the Ginger Pride march, led by Canadian comedian Shawn Hitchins. Red hair is. "The probable reason for that is that we make vitamin D in our skin. 70 Incredible Facts About Redheads: How Much Do You Know About - Kidadl And of course Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex - formerly the worlds most eligible bachelor and now an expectant father and doting husband. Most (natural) redheads will have brown eyes, followed by hazel or green shades. That's approximately 140 million people. (Hucknall, who says that he has repeatedly faced prejudice or been described as ugly on account of his hair colour, argues that Gingerism should be described as a form of racism. From Helen of Troy to Winston Churchill, redheads have made their mark. [34], The Kipchak people were a Turkic ethnic group from central Asia who served in the Golden Horde military forces after being conquered by the Mongols. 69. [58] Other blogs and news sources ran similar stories that attributed the research to the magazine or the "Oxford Hair Foundation". We try our very best, but cannot guarantee perfection. 40. Q: Who are the most famous redhead celebrities? [125] The organizers state; "The event is a good thing for many redheads, who had been embarrassed about being redheads before. 12. Americans aren't the only ones who like to celebrate their fiery locks. 39. A: Debra Messing, best known for her turn in Will and Grace, is naturally blonde but is one of the worlds best loved redheads. More than 1,600 people participated in this Redhead Day Festival that took place in Breda, a Netherlands city. Lalla Salma, Morocco's Queen, names one famous person from this region who has red hair, by the way. In Anne of Green Gables, a character says of Anne Shirley, the redheaded heroine, that "her temper matches her hair", while in The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield remarks that "People with red hair are supposed to get mad very easily, but Allie [his dead brother] never did, and he had very red hair.". A:Roughly one to two percent of the worlds population are born with natural red hair - thats still a sizable number of about 140 million!There are more redheads in northern and western Europe than in any other region on earth, where an average of up to six percent of people have red or ginger hair. With more red-headed residents than anyone else in the world, Ireland is the king of people with red hair. The USA has the highest redhead population of any country in the world, boasting between 6 and 18 million redheaded citizens. A couple of months ago this map did the rounds. Massive new project aims to map all of the redheads in the world Please note that Kidadl is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon. [128], In ancient Egypt, red hair was associated with the deity Set as well as Ramesses II. 70 to 80% of the world's population have brown eyes. "It's fair to say we don't have very detailed information about what the frequency of people with red hair is throughout the world," says Rees. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. "I was walking through Edinburgh with 200 redheads behind me and I was mostly trying not to lead people into traffic. What science tells us about the afterlife. 16 fun facts about redheads to mark World Redhead Day on May 26 - WBIR.com We also link to other websites, but are not responsible for their content. Recessive traits often happen in pairs so commonly people with the gene for red hair also possess the trait for left-handedness. 31. In Russia, ginger hair is believed to be a sign of having a hot temper and being a bit of a wild child. In Australian slang, redheads are often nicknamed "Blue" or "Bluey". [81], Queen Elizabeth I of England was a redhead, and during the Elizabethan era in England, red hair was fashionable for women. [3], Red hair is most commonly found at the northern and western fringes of Europe;[4] it is centred around populations in the British Isles and is particularly associated with the Celtic nations. Approximately 2-6% of the US population is redheaded, giving the US the largest redhead population in the world at 6-18 million people. 529548. If that was the case in Scotland, that would suggest that the country with its population of 5.3 million was home to just over half a million redheads - less than 1% of the global total. 53. More than 5.55 billion people worldwide have received a dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, equal to about 72.3 percent of the world population. Considering that in most places across the globe, redheads make up less than one percent of the population, Ireland's abundance of redheads is even more astonishing. If the parent is a carrier but does not have ginger hair themselves, there is roughly a 25 percent chance their baby will have red hair. A lively debate between bloggers on the Human Biodiversity Forum even conjured up an eye-colour map as well as US-specific hair colour trends. It shows that in most of Scotland and Ireland, as well as a random patch in central Russia, 10% of people are of the ginger genre. Countries in the world by population (2023) This list includes both countries and dependent territories.Data based on the latest United Nations Population Division estimates. 20. This country reportedly has up to 18 million redheads as of 2018. In Asia, natural red hair is very rare and was historically found mainly among the Tocharians. Q: Are redheads more likely to be right or left handed? Anyone using the information provided by Kidadl does so at their own risk and we can not accept liability if things go wrong. Black and dark brown hair run to 85 percent (85%) of the whole, while reds number 4 percent (4%)", "There are, however, a noticeable number of Kabyles with red hair, blue eyes and, Helfen-Maenchen, Otto, The World of the Huns: Studies of Their History and Culture, pp.373. [40] The ancient peoples Budini and Sarmatians are also reported by Greek author to be blue-eyed and red-haired, and the latter even owe their names to it. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'. So, in certain places in the world at least, there's a big advantage to being in this minority. Listen to our podcast. In the heat of the moment, it seems, he simply got his words muddled, and that proportion of redheads in Scotland became something very different. 44. Less than two percent of the world's population has naturally red hair. [94] In 2007, a UK woman won an award from a tribunal after being sexually harassed and receiving abuse because of her red hair;[95] in the same year, a family in Newcastle upon Tyne, was forced to move twice after being targeted for abuse and hate crime on account of their red hair. It's in their genes specifically the one called MC1R. 48. But don't worry 4. You have to remember, however, most of them probably have European descendants. The International Journal of Cancer reported in 2010 that natural redheads are approximately two and a half times as likely to develop the dangerous cancer as people with other hair hues. Not unlike Ireland, in light of the average number of redheads around the globe, these are also eye-popping numbers. Nurit Benchetrit, now a graduate of the NB Haifa School of Design, asked redheads who live in Israel to let her take their picture for her final project. She never anticipated that he would end up becoming Africas king. Some scientific studies have found that bees are more attracted to people with red hair. In some countries, particularly the British Isles, despite the high proportion . The number of alleles linked to red hair has since been expanded by other authors, and these variants are now identified as the RHC alleles. Hitler made it illegal for redheads to get married. In 1995, Valverde, et al. MC1R also occurs in the brain, where it is one of a large set of POMC-related receptors that are apparently involved not only in responding to MSH, but also in responses to endorphins and possibly other POMC-derived hormones. Click on the name of the country or dependency for current estimates (live population clock), historical data, and projected figures. At Kidadl we pride ourselves on offering families original ideas to make the most of time spent together at home or out and about, wherever you are in the world. However, in rare cases red hair can be associated with disease or genetic disorder: There have also been rare reports of scalp or beard hair spontaneously turning partially red, with no identified pathological cause.[76]. Redhead Central - Ducks Unlimited The melanin that ginger haired people possess almost always takes the form of freckles, which are actually just concentrated patches of melanin. We all like to know what makes us, us. The festival was held in Breda, a city in the south east of the Netherlands, prior to 2019, when it moved to Tilburg. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story "The Red-Headed League" (1891) involves a man who is asked to become a member of a mysterious group of red-headed people. Q: What are the odds of having red hair and blue eyes? Ginger hair: 13 fascinating facts about redheads - Cosmopolitan A: While this may seem an outlandish question, numerous scientific studies have found that people with red hair have different (and often more intense) sensitivity to pain compared to those with other hair colours. By contrast, less than 1 in every 100 people in southern Europe have red hair. The three men were subsequently jailed for a combined total of ten years and one month for the attack. The epithet is sometimes rendered as ang mo kui () meaning "red-haired devil", similar to the Cantonese term gweilo ("foreign devil"). Omani-Australian actress Isla Fisher was rated second, with Amy Adams voted third most beautiful ginger. [96] In May 2009, a schoolboy committed suicide after being bullied for having red hair. Judas Iscariot is also represented with red hair in Spanish culture[140][141] and in the works of William Shakespeare,[142] reinforcing the negative stereotype. Ireland boasts the highest national average of redheads with 10 percent, while Scotland comes a closesecond with six percent. ", In his 1895 memoir and history The Gurneys of Earlham, Augustus John Cuthbert Hare described an incident of harassment: As science journalist Maggie Koerth-Baker writes, Actually, redheads are stealthily infiltrating the rest of humanity. Heres her proof: Even though only 2 percent of people have red hair, 4 percent have the gene that makes redheads. This is thought to be connected to a hormonal receptor found in redheaded individuals which is related to pain-relieving endorphins. In Scotland around 6% of the population has red hair, with the highest concentration of red head carriers in the world found in Edinburgh, making it the red head capital of the world. By Nathaniel Scharping Apr 28, 2020 8:00 AM. Do blue eyes and red hair really go together? Although the Jewish people have been displaced over the years, it is still guesstimated that around 10% of Jewish men have red hair or beards. We recognise that not all activities and ideas are appropriate and suitable for all children and families or in all circumstances. Nicole Hahn Rafter (ed), Lombroso & Ferraro, Discrimination against people with red hair, "Celts' red hair could be attributed to the cloudy weather", "Auld Reekie is world capital for ginger hair", "Edinburgh is surprise capital of redheaded Britain and Ireland", "Memoir on the Pigmentation Survey of Scotland", "Pastoralists and mobility in the Oglakhty cemetery of southern Siberia: new evidence from stable isotopes", Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, "Journal of the Polynesian Society: Front Matter P 1-6", Xenophanes of Colophon: Fragments, Xenophanes, J. H. Lesher, University of Toronto Press, 2001, "Characterization of melanocyte stimulating hormone receptor variant alleles in twins with red hair", "Evidence for Variable Selective Pressures at MC1R", "Hair color gene study sheds new light on roots of redheads' locks", "Genome-wide study of hair colour in UK Biobank explains most of the SNP heritability", "Why do some men have red beards, but not red hair? [55][56], A DNA study has concluded that some Neanderthals also had red hair, although the mutation responsible for this differs from that which causes red hair in modern humans. The genetics of red hair appear to be associated with the melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R), which is found on chromosome 16. 11. It might be our eye color or our star sign, or maybe it's the hobbies we choose or the way we spend our downtime. Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! In Ireland, the percentage of population with red hair is very high relative to the rest of the world at around 10%, with 46% carrying the gene. 8. Nonetheless, individuals and families in Britain are targeted for harassment and violence because of their hair colour. Next, find out which is the rarest eye color in the world. Making up 10 percent of the population, Ireland has more redheads than anywhere else on the globe. Researchers at the American Academy of Opthalmology have stated that everyone on planet earth had brown eyes around 10,000 years ago. From how much sex redheads have to how they produce their own Vitamin D. Other painters notable for their redheads include the Pre-Raphaelites, Edmund Leighton, Modigliani,[83] and Gustav Klimt.[84]. This article includes content provided by Google. Interestingly, King Arthur, Queen Elizabeth I and Winston Churchill all had red hair. Another belief is that redheads are highly sexed; for example, Jonathan Swift satirizes redhead stereotypes in part four of Gulliver's Travels, "A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms," when he writes that: "It is observed that the red-haired of both sexes are more libidinous and mischievous than the rest, whom yet they much exceed in strength and activity." "I am very sorry. In November 2008 social networking website Facebook received criticism after a 'Kick a Ginger' group, which aimed to establish a "National Kick a Ginger Day" on 20 November, acquired almost 5,000 members. Mark Twain once said that while most humans are descended from apes, people with red hair come from cats. "When humans moved out of Africa skin lightened and people developed hair with different colours. We'd say that was catty, but it turns out Twain was a redhead himself. So where did Hitchins get the figure from? Among the various hair colors of the world, black and brown are the most mainstream, blonde is less common but still widespread, and red is the rarest of all. The data is from the most recent year available from the World Bank API. Eye color percentages around the world - Medical News Today Some scientists think that the protein mutation that causes red hair and fair skin makes redheads more sensitive to pain and therefore its more difficult to anesthetize them.