Portuguese People - General Traits

General Traits

Modern Portuguese are an Iberian ethnic group and their ancestry is very similar to other western and southern European peoples, particularly from Spain, with whom they share ancestry and have some cultural proximity. It is largely consistent with the geographic position of the western part of the Iberian peninsula, located on the extreme southwest of continental Europe. There are clear connections with Atlantic Europe and Western Europe as well as parts of the Western Mediterranean. Dark to medium brown hair and brown and hazel eyes predominate in a majority of Portuguese people. However, light brown and blond hair and blue or green eyes are also found with some regular frequency. Chestnut and auburn-colored hair types occur generally. Light, true red hair (meaning red shades that are non-auburn) is seen on occasion.

Well designed pigmentation field studies by Tamagnini (1916, 1936), Correa (1919) and others recorded national average fair hair ("blondism") frequencies of between 18 and 20%. Approximately 11% are legitimate blond shades, mainly medium to ash blond, and the remainder (7-9%) light brown. True red hair (ginger) amounts to approximately 3%. However, there are higher percentages of individuals with auburn and dark red-brown shades. Light eyes run between 20-49% for the Portuguese, according to recently published pigmentation maps of Europe (see P. Frost, 2006).