Are blue eyes really the most common eye colour in the U.K.?

[JuliTooley]

In my Sunday boredom I googled U.K. eye colour breakdown. I found a study from a few years ago that found blue eyes were the most common. Break down as follows:

Blue - 48%
Green - 30%
Brown - 22%

In contrast 90% of the world’s population has brown eyes 👀

Am I the only one surprised by this? I could have sworn brown was the most common and green was the rarest? I’m really not sure I believe it, especially as it misses out hazel.

It also said blue numbers are increasing due to natural selection.

Maybe my experience has been skewed by living exclusively in London and the South East all my life. Do these stats fit in with your experience?

Me - blue, DH - hazel
3 x DC - blue, 1x DC - hazel (well more like amber).

In my large immediate family, about 90% have blue eyes. I myself have Hazel eyes (more brown Hazel though) and dh and I have a blue eyed dc. Dh has blue eyes, as do most of his family. Only a few of us have dark eyes.

Green eyes are meant to be rare, but me, mum, dad and bro all have green eyes (my dad and mine are more vividly green if that makes sense).
DH has blue eyes, as does Dd. Ds has brown eyes (different dad).

It doesn't surprise me, most people I know have blue eyes. I remember in Biology class we did a survey and 24/28 had blue eyes. I think there is still a bit of a North/South split though. Blue eyes more prevalent in the north.

I have green eyes.

I had to go to emergency eye centre last year. The nurse who was dealing with me said ‘Oh green eyes, we don’t see many of them in here’

Mine are green
Dad - blue
Mum - brown

I grew up in Wales and the vast majority of my friends and other people whose eye colour I can remember had blue eyes, certainly more than 50%, I can think of a few who had green eyes and only one person who had brown (and her heritage wasn’t British). Now I live in the NW in a more multi-cultural area and I would say blue and brown eyes are about equal and green are unusual. So I think it probably depends where you live, presumably the statistics are nationwide but if you live in an area with a history of immigration then that may explain why brown eyes are more prevalent than they might be in more rural communities or in areas where the heritage is Gaelic/ Celtic.

All four of us are blue in my house.

The vast majority of my family have blue eyes (incl. Aunts/Uncles/cousins/cousins children).

I’m one of the few that has brown, as are my DDs.

I live in Cyprus and it is so rare to see a blue eyed local that it really stands out.

Having googled this too, apparently blue eyes have overtaken other eye colours in the UK. It's thought that blue has some benefits in attracting a mate! In other words it's seen as more attractive. My family all have blue eyes.

BTW when we go to Greece my family are always stared at because their eyes are really, really blue.

I'd imagine the highest numbers would be brown eyes. That would encompass hazel and amber tones. Blues would include grey eyes. Green would be the smallest category.

DH - blue, Me - brown.
Both DD's had blue, then green, amber and now hazel. Took 5 years for their eyes to settle.

My father's are brown, mother's hazel, mine are green and DSis has brown. If you think eye colour inheritance is complex, don't try sorting out coat colour genetics in Labradors...

Where’s Hazel and grey??

DM - Grey
DF - Green
DB - brown (proper brown, not Hazel)
Me - Blue

OH is kind of Hazel and all three SDCs have matching hazel eyes.

75% blue in this house

Me-blue/green
DJ-hazel
Dd x2 blue
Ds blue
DGD blue
Her dad-blue
DGD-hazel
Her dad -black/brown!
My df blue
My dam blue
All cousins on df side blue or blue/green
But then we are all blonde or done Sandy ginger
Odd one out is my son in law with incredible dark brown almost black eyes but his dd has the hazel eyes
So blue is def dominant as is the blonde gene going back at least 80 years

@TakeMeToKernow

Where’s Hazel and grey??

DM - Grey
DF - Green
DB - brown (proper brown, not Hazel)
Me - Blue

OH is kind of Hazel and all three SDCs have matching hazel eyes.

Grey comes under blue surely? My eyes are light blue but can look grey in some lights/depending on what I'm wearing.

In my house all 3 of my children have different eye colours.

DS1 hazel Amber (they're an orangey Amber colour with hints of green)
DD brown
DS2 blue with partial heterochromia so he has a brown patch in one eye.

I have brown eyes.

I’d thought blue was pretty common, but then all of my close family are blue eyed.

My mum had brown eyes, my dad had green.

I have green eyes, dc 1 & 2 have blue eyes, ds has green.

My brother has brown eyes, but SIL and 2 nieces have blue eyes.

Other brother has blue eyes.

So out of 11 people in my immediate family, only 2 have brown eyes.

The old fashioned dominant-recessive allele model of eye colour we were all taught at school had been recently shown not to be the case (or rather, it’s a very heavy simplification of something much more complex).

It’s now understood that eye colour is controlled by mutations along up to 15 genes, which can interact in surprising ways and produce spontaneous mutations to and away from blue that contradict the old model.

It’s quite fascinating, and evidence of how much more complex genetic variation is than we initially think.

I also read somewhere that blue was now the most common, but I thought it was followed by brown and then green.

What reason was given for natural selection?

It does seem to follow in our family as both DH and I have dark brown eyes, but DD has green and DS has bright blue.

Not unheard of as one of my parents had brown and one green eyes and DH has one brown-eyed parent and one blue.

However I think the chance each time of our offspring having brown eyes was 75%..

Very surprising. I’d assume from experience that brown eyes the most common. I’d thought this is because blue is recessive (both parents have to pass on the blue gene to you, if you get one blue and one brown, your eyes are brown).

I have green eyes, DH and both DS's have blue eyes. I thought blue was common in the UK because of the Vikings.