Brown Hair - Geographic Distribution

Geographic Distribution

Brown-haired individuals are present in all of Europe and Indo-European peoples. In northern and part of central Europe medium to light brown shades are the most common, while darker shades prevail in the rest of the continent, such as the Iberian Peninsula, where it transitions into black hair. Brown hair, mostly medium to light brown shades, are also dominant in Australia, Canada and the United States among descendants of the Northern, Central and Eastern European (British, German, Scandinavian, Polish, and Russian) immigrants.

Brown hair is also predominant in Latin America, mostly dark brown hair among mestizos, mulattoes and immigrants from some regions of Southern Europe and the Middle East, while medium and light brown hair are more common in countries of strong central, northern and insular Iberian, central and northern Italian, Sardinian, Balkan Slav and other European ancestries more to the north. This is specially true about Uruguayans, Argentinians, Chileans, Brazilians and Costa Ricans, as well minorities of mostly European descent in countries such as Paraguay, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Cuba.

Brown hair is also found among Indo-European ethnic groups of Central, West and South Asia, including Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and North India.