The rarest of the main eye colors is green, at about 2 percent of people worldwide, while brown is the most common by far. Gray and amber are probably rarer than green but are rarely counted on their own, and violet or red eyes are the rarest of all. If you are not sure which you have, our free eye color checker reads it from a selfie.
Eye colors from most to least common
Here is the ranking, with how sure we can be about each number.
| Rank | Color | How common | How solid the number is |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brown | More than half of people worldwide, about 45 percent in the US | Solid |
| 2 | Blue | About 8 to 10 percent worldwide, about 27 percent in the US | Solid |
| 3 | Hazel | About 18 percent in the US | Rough, people disagree on what counts as hazel |
| 4 | Green | About 2 percent worldwide, about 9 percent in the US | Fairly solid |
| 5 | Amber | Uncommon | No separate count |
| 6 | Gray | Uncommon | No separate count |
| 7 | Red and violet | Very rare | Mostly linked to albinism |
The US figures come from a 2014 poll of more than 2,000 adults run for the American Academy of Ophthalmology. The worldwide figures for brown and green come from the academy, and the worldwide blue figure is a widely used estimate.
Why every ranking is a little rough
Rarity lists online disagree because eye color is hard to count.
- People name their own eyes. Surveys ask people to pick a color, and many hazel eyed people pick brown or green, while many gray eyed people pick blue.
- Most surveys offer four options. Brown, blue, hazel and green. Gray and amber get folded into the nearest option, so they have no separate count.
- Light changes the answer. Eyes that look green in sun can look hazel indoors, so the same person might answer differently on another day.
So treat precise numbers for gray, amber or violet with care. When a site claims an exact share for them, ask where it came from.
Brown, the most common eye color
Brown eyes have plenty of melanin, the brown pigment, in the front layer of the iris. The American Academy of Ophthalmology says more than half of all people have brown eyes, and many estimates put the share near 80 percent worldwide. Brown ranges from golden light brown to a deep brown that looks black indoors.
Blue, common in some places and rare worldwide
Blue eyes have very little pigment, and their color comes from light scattering in the iris. About 27 percent of US adults reported blue eyes in the 2014 poll, but worldwide the share is closer to 8 to 10 percent.
Hazel, the color people argue about
Hazel mixes brown or gold with green. About 18 percent of US adults reported hazel eyes, though the line between hazel, brown and green is fuzzy. Many hazel eyes also have a ring of a different color around the pupil, a pattern called central heterochromia, covered in our guide to heterochromia.
Green, the rarest of the main four
Green eyes need a narrow balance, a little brown pigment, a yellow tint and scattered blue light. The American Academy of Ophthalmology puts them at about 2 percent of people worldwide, which makes green the rarest of the four colors most surveys count.
Gray and amber, rare but uncounted
Gray eyes have very little pigment and look silvery rather than clearly blue. Amber eyes are an even gold or copper with little or no green. Both are usually described as rarer than green, but with no separate count it is hard to say by how much. In the 2014 poll, only about 1 percent chose a color other than brown, blue, hazel or green.
Our eye color chart shows every shade side by side, so you can see where gray and amber sit.
Red and violet, the rarest of all
Eyes that look red or violet are extremely rare. They mostly occur in people with albinism, where the iris has so little pigment that light reflecting from blood vessels at the back of the eye shows through. Mixed with scattered blue light, that red can make an eye look violet. Our guide to violet eyes explains how it works and why famous claims of violet eyes are usually deep blue.
Is heterochromia rarer than any color
Two clearly different colored eyes, called complete heterochromia, are rare in people. A ring of a different color around the pupil, central heterochromia, is much more common. Neither is a color in its own right, so they are not usually ranked with the colors above.
Find out where your eyes fit
Most people know their eye color in general terms, but not the exact shade or mix. Our eye color checker reads your irises from a selfie on your device, names the main color and shows the shade mix, so you can see whether you lean toward green, hazel or brown. It names a shade only and says nothing about eye health.
For colors that suit your eyes, skin and hair together, try our seasonal color analysis.
Eye color rarity in babies
Rankings of adult eye color do not apply to newborns. A 2016 study of newborns, described by the Cleveland Clinic, found about 63 percent were born with brown eyes, about 20 percent with blue eyes and a little under 6 percent with green eyes. Many lighter eyes darken over the first year or two as pigment builds up, so some babies born with blue eyes end up with green, hazel or brown eyes. Eyes that start brown usually stay brown.
Does a rare eye color mean anything
No. A rare eye color is simply a less common amount or spread of pigment in the iris. It does not make anyone more or less attractive, healthy or special, and no eye color is better than another. Rarity rankings are fun trivia, and that is all they are.
Why rare colors are hard to name
Rare colors are also the hardest to pin down in a photo. When we tested our eye color checker on 701 public portraits with a recorded eye color, it read four of the five people recorded as amber as brown, and a little over two in five of those recorded as gray as blue. Brown, the most common color, was named correctly most often, at 67 percent.
That pattern is not surprising. Amber sits right next to light brown, and gray right next to blue, so small changes in light move them across the line. It is the same reason surveys struggle to count them. Read the full results on our methodology page.