But it’s also possible for you to have brown eyes, even if both of your parents have blue eyes.īecause eye color is due to reflected light, blue, green, and even hazel eyes can change a little in different lighting conditions. Blue eyes have the least amount of melanin and reflect the most light.īecause you inherit genes from your parents, it’s likely that your eyes will be similar in color to one or both of your parents. Hazel eyes have less melanin than brown eyes, but more than green eyes. Light reflected from your eye is from the blue part of the color spectrum.īrown eyes have a lot of melanin, so they absorb light, which makes them dark. But when it doesn’t absorb light, the light is reflected and the object is the color of the light it reflects. When an object absorbs light, it looks dark. Darker eyes have a lot of melanin, while light eyes have only a little. Your eye color is determined by several genes that control melanin production in your iris. We now know that it’s much more complicated than that. Since brown is dominant over blue, a blue-eyed person would have two blue eye genes, and two blue-eyed parents couldn’t have a brown-eyed child. Scientists used to think your eye color was determined by two eye color genes, one from each parent.

This condition is seen in less than 1 percent of people, but it’s frequently seen in dogs. If you have heterochromia, all or part of one of your irises is a different color than the other one.

Gray eyes scatter light differently, which makes them pale.

Scientists think gray eyes have even less melanin than blue eyes.

Gray eyes are most common in Northern and Eastern Europe.

Less than 1 percent of people have gray eyes.

Amber eyes are a lot more common in dogs, fish, and birds.

The iris contains mostly the pigment lipochrome and not much melanin.

Amber is a golden yellow or coppery color without specks of gold, green, or brown.

Amber eyes are uncommon, but can be found throughout the world.

About 5 percent of people around the world have this rare eye color.

People with hazel eyes have almost as much melanin as those with brown eyes, but it’s mostly around the edge of the iris instead of the center.

Hazel is a light or yellowish-brown color with specks of gold, green, and brown in the center.

Hazel eyes are uncommon, but can be found throughout the world, especially in Europe and the United States.

Approximately 5 percent of people have hazel eyes.

The iris contains a pigment called lipochrome and only a little melanin.

About 16 percent of people with green eyes are of Celtic and Germanic ancestry.

Green eyes are most common in Northern, Central, and Western Europe.

About 2 percent of people have green eyes.

You might see better at night if you have blue eyes, but you might also have more trouble with glare.

That individual is a common ancestor of all blue-eyed people today.

The mutation first appeared in a person living in Europe about 10,000 years ago.

People with blue eyes have the same genetic mutation that causes eyes to produce less melanin.

Blue eyes are most common in Europe, especially Scandinavia.Between 8 and 10 percent of people worldwide have blue eyes.Light brown eyes are found in West Asia, the Americas, and Europe.Dark brown eyes are most common in Africa, East Asia, and Southeast Asia.Between 55 and 79 percent of people worldwide have brown eyes.What are eye color percentages around the world?Īccording to World Atlas, eye color tends to fall into these percentages: Brown

Asian eyes