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What Is the Rarest Eye Color?
Green has traditionally been called the rarest eye color. But new classifications say another color may be even less common—gray.
Eye color is an inherited trait with multiple genes affecting the shade. Genes related to the production of pigments—melanin, eumelanin, and pheomelanin—dictate the color of your skin, hair, and eyes. A person’s eye color reflects a unique combination and concentration of pigments in the iris.
This article looks at rare eye colors and the genetics of different eye colors. It also discusses conditions that may change your eyes’ appearance, health associations of different colors, age-related changes, and how to change your eye color.
Most Common and Rarest Eye Colors
The conventional eye colors have generally been thought of as:
- Brown
- Blue
- Hazel (sometimes grouped with amber)
- Green
Of those four, green is the rarest. It shows up in about 9% of Americans but only 2% of the world’s population. Hazel/amber is the next rarest of these.
Blue is the second most common and brown tops the list with 45% of the U.S. population and possibly almost 80% worldwide.
Black is not an eye color. While some eyes may look black, they’re either just a very dark brown or have large pupils (more on this below).
Gray: The Rarest Eye Color
New classifications have determined that gray is its own standard color. (It was previously, and incorrectly, lumped in with blue.) With this change, gray now tops the list as the rarest eye color.
You can also develop heterochromia later in life. It can occur due to:
- Injury
- Eye surgery
- Medication, including some glaucoma drugs
- Illness, including glaucoma and diabetes
Heterochromia itself doesn’t need to be treated. If it’s caused by an underlying condition, though, you should get proper treatment for that condition.
Anisocoria
Anisocoria is when someone has two different pupil sizes. The larger the pupil, the more black there is in the center of the eye. This isn’t an eye color, but it can make someone look like they have heterochromia.
Anisocoria is usually harmless, but it can be a symptom of some serious eye problems. These may include:
- Nervous system problems
- Previous eye damage
- High stroke risk
- Viral infection
- A condition called Adie’s tonic pupil, in which one pupil doesn’t react well to light
- Horner syndrome, a rare condition involving drooping eyelids, different-sized pupils, and lack of facial sweat
If you have anisocoria along with certain other symptoms, you should see an eye doctor. Watch for symptoms such as:
- Dropping eyelids
- Difficulty moving your eye
- Pain in your eye
- Fever
- Headache
- Reduced sweating
Anisocoria itself doesn’t need to be treated, but an underlying condition may need to be.
Albino Eyes: Red, Pink, Violet
Albinism is low amounts of melanin in the skin, hair, and eyes. In some people, it only affects the eyes. This is called ocular albinism.
People with albinism may have lighter versions of standard eye colors. But they may also have eyes that appear:
The iris doesn’t actually have red, pink, or violet pigment, though. These colors result from blood vessels at the back of the eye being visible. In other people, the color of the iris blocks the view of these blood vessels.
People with albinism often have serious vision problems. That’s because melanin helps the eye develop normally before birth.
Eye Color and Your Health
Having a rare eye color or appearance may seem special and distinctive. It may go beyond appearance, though, as eye color (or shade) may be tied to certain health benefits or concerns.
A 2014 study concluded women with light-colored eyes were better able to withstand pain during pregnancy than those with darker eyes. The sample size for this study was relatively small, including just 58 women, but another small study had similar results.
A review from 2015 suggests people with darker eyes may have a reduced risk of hearing loss not related to age.
However, research from 2011, suggests a link between blue eyes and type 1 diabetes. This work hasn’t been replicated, though.
Lighter eye color is also associated with an increased risk of macular degeneration, which causes a loss of your center field of vision, as well as ocular melanoma (cancer in or around the eye).
This is all preliminary work, though. More research is needed to confirm such connections and associations.
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Remove cell colors, patterns, or fill effects
To remove any background colors, patterns, or fill effects from cells, just select the cells. Then click Home > arrow next to Fill Color, and then pick No Fill.
Print cell colors, patterns, or fill effects in color
If print options are set to Black and white or Draft quality — either on purpose, or because the workbook has large or complex worksheets and charts that caused draft mode to be turned on automatically — cells won’t print in color. Here’s how you can fix that:
- Click Page Layout >Page Setup dialog box launcher.
- On the Sheet tab, under Print, uncheck the Black and white and Draft quality check boxes.
Note: If you don’t see colors in your worksheet, it may be that you’re working in high contrast mode. If you don’t see colors when you preview before you print, it may be that you don’t have a color printer selected.
If you’d like to highlight text or numbers to make the data more visible, try either changing the font color or add a background color to the cell or range of cells like this:
- Select the cell or range of cells for which you want to add a fill color.
- On the Home tab, click Fill Color, and pick the color you want.
Note: Pattern fill effects for background colors are not available for Excel for the web. If you apply any from Excel on your desktop, it won’t appear in the browser.
Remove fill color
If you decide that you don’t want the fill color immediately after you added it, just click Undo.
To remove the fill color at a later time, select the cell or cell range you want to change, and click Clear > Clear Formats.
