I had an interesting conversation last week with one of my editors, who said that every book she's read lately has featured a male lead with green or hazel eyes. She said she found it very interesting because less than 19% of the world's population has green/hazel eyes, and in less than one hundred years, it's expected that blue and/or green eyes will be almost nonexistent.
My entire family has green or hazel eyes; my father's eyes are green and my mother's (who is now deceased) were hazel. But both were of Irish descent. In Ireland, green eyes are still encountered regularly, as they are in Scotland and England.
The residents of Nordic countries (Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway) often have blue eyes.
But brown eyes are dominant. Those of Asian, African, Hispanic/Latino, Indian and many others have brown eyes. So as residents of various countries regularly marry those from outside the lands of their ancestors, it is far more likely that the light-colored eyes are not passed on to their children.
In the United States as of May 2013:
32% of the population has blue or grey irises;
15% has blue, green or grey irises with brown or golden flecks;
12% has green or light brown irises with minimal flecks;
and 41% of the population has brown irises ranging from brown to dark brown.
(Statistics from the American Academy of Ophthalmology)
When you are reading a book, is there a particular eye color you like to read about? One you like to picture? Is it brown, blue, green or hazel?
