Skip to Content

What Is The Difference Between Hazel And Green Eyes? (Beautiful Eyes)

What Is The Difference Between Hazel And Green Eyes? (Beautiful Eyes)

The eyes are important organs of the human body. When you look at someone’s face, you often look directly into their eyes first.

There are different eye colors. Asian people mostly have black or brown eyes. African people have brown eyes too. In western countries, people have hazel, green, blue, and grey eyes. In reality, brown eyes are the most common eye color.

Eye colors are the product of melanin, which is also found in hair and skin. Melanin pigmentation depends on your genes and how much melanin is produced in them. Melanin has two types: eumelanin and pheomelanin.

A green eye is distinguished by a strong green tint and an iris that is predominantly one color. Hazel eyes, on the other hand, are multicolored, with a hint of green and a distinctive flare of brown or gold extending from the pupil.

Keep reading to learn more about the differences between hazel and green eyes.

Genetics of Eye Color

Human eye color results from the coloration of a composition of the Iris. It is adjoined by a small black circle in the center called the pupil, which manages the light entering the eye.

According to scientists’ research, about 150 genes compose eye color. One pair of chromosomes has two genes that are responsible for deciding eye color.

A gene called OCA2 for protein is associated with melanosome maturation. It also influences the quantity and quality of melanin kept in the Iris. Another gene named HERC2 is in charge of gene OCA2 which operates as necessary.

Some other genes which are slightly responsible for eye color are:

  • ASIP
  • IRF4
  • SLC24A4
  • SLC24A5
  • SLC45A2
  • TPCN2
  • TYR
Human eye color
Human eye color

Eye Color Percentage

As approximated by the WHO, the world presently has about 8 billion people, and all of them are different from one another by their fingerprints, genetics, eye colors, etc. By now, more than half of the people have dark brown eyes. Others have different colors of eyes, like blue, hazel, amber, gray, or green.

  • Brown Eyes: 45 percent
  • Blue Eyes: 27 percent
  • Hazel Eyes: 18 percent
  • Green Eyes: 9 percent
  • Other: 1 percent

How Does Eye Color Determine?

A few years ago, you were taught that your eye color is inherited from your parents. You inherited the dominant gene from your parents, but now the science has totally changed. Recent research shows that 16 genes may affect your eye color.

Because of this variation in the multiple genes, it’s difficult to say what color a baby’s eye will be according to the color of his or her parents’ eyes.

For instance, even if both mother and father have blue eyes, it may be possible that they can have a baby with brown eyes.

The Affect of Light on Eye Color

Most babies are born with dark brown eyes. It often shows that they have no other color except brown. Eyes have melanin, which is a pigment that is often brown in color. So, why do we see different people with unique colors like blue, green, or hazel eyes?

It may be possible for some reasons. Melanin in the eye sucks different wavelengths of light when entering the eye. Light is dispersed and thrown back from the iris, and some colors disperse more than others.

Eyes with high amounts of melanin soak up more light so, less is dispersed and thrown back by the iris. Thereafter light with a small wavelength (blue or green) disperses more easily than light with a high wavelength (red). It proves that less light sucks melanin appears hazel or green and eyes with low absorption may appear blue.

Let’s discuss the hazel and green eye color briefly.

Hazel Eye Color

Hazel eye color is a combination of brown and green. About 5% of the population in the world has a hazel eye gene mutation. Hazel eyes have the most melanin in them after brown eyes. In fact, this is the most unique color that has an average amount of melanin in it.

Most people who have hazel eyes have a dark brown ring throughout the eyeball. One special feature of this eye color is that it can emerge to swap colors in contrasting light.

This color means that inside the Iris there is a dissimilar color from the outer lining, making this color shining and vigorous in appearance.

Which Country Has People With Hazel Eyes?

People from North Africa, Brazil, the Middle East, and Spain commonly have hazel eyes. But you cannot be sure about the eye color of a newborn. People from other countries can also be born with hazel eyes.

Causes of Hazel Eye Color

As you read above, melanin is responsible for determining eye color. It also influences skin and hair color. Research shows that a low amount of melanin results in a hazel color.

Sometimes babies are born with blue eyes because of the high amount of melanin in their Irises, but it tends to change when the amount of melanin decreases as they get older and their eye color turns hazel eye color.

Hazel eyes
Hazel eyes with blank ring

Famous Personalities with Hazel Eyes

Indeed, hazel eye color is the most unique color in the world. Below are some celebrities with hazel eyes:

  •   Jason Statham
  •   Tyra Banks
  •   Jeremy Renner
  •   Dianna Agron
  •   Steve Carell
  •   David Beckham
  •   Heidi Klum
  •   Kelly Clarkson
  •   Brooke Shields
  •   Kristen Stewart
  •   Ben Affleck
  •   Jenny Mollen
  •   Olivia Munn

Green Eye Color

Green eye color is the most scattered eye color; about 2% of the world’s populace has this distinctive color. This color results from a genetic mutation, e.g., a low level of melanin present in it. In other words, you can say there is more melanin in it than in blue eyes.

In fact, people with green eyes have a higher amount of yellow melanin and a lower amount of brown melanin in their irises.

Green Eyes Actually Don’t Exist

The iris of green eyes does not have a sufficient amount of melanin in it; that’s why the color we see is the result of a lack of melanin in it. The lower the amount of melanin, the more light disperses out, and because of this dispersion, you can see green eyes.

Which Country People Have Green Eyes?

People found in Ireland, Iceland, Scotland, and Europe mostly have green eyes. About 80% of the population has this distinctive color.

Green Eyes
Green Eye Color

What is the Special in Green Eye Color?

This eye color’s special feature is that it results from a safe genetic mutation. Almost 16 genetic traits are mandatory to produce this color.

That’s why parents with green eye color are not to be expected to have children with green eyes. Babies with green eyes seem brown or blue until they turn 6 months. Not only humans some animals also have green eye colors; for example, chameleons, cheetahs, and monkeys.

What Causes Green Eye Color?

A low amount of melanin causes green eye, it’s a genetic mutation in which more light disperses in the Iris.

Famous Personalities with Green Eyes

  • Adele
  • Kelly Osbourne
  • Emma Stone
  • Jennifer Carpenter
  • Elizabeth Olsen
  • Emily Browning
  • Hayley Williams
  • Felicia Day
  • Jessie J
  • Dita Von Teese
  • Drew Barrymore

Difference Between Hazel And Green Eye Color

CharacteristicsHazel Eye ColorGreen Eye Color
Genetic FormulaEYCL1 (gey  gene)BEY1
Gene It represents a recessive gene.It represents the dominant gene.
CombinationIt is a combination of brown and green.It is a combination of yellow and brown.
Amount of MelaninHazel eyes have a high amount of melanin.Green eyes have a lower amount of melanin.
Population5% of the world’s population has hazel eyes.Only about 2% of the world’s population has green eye color.
Hazel Eye Color vs. Green Eye Color

Use of Contact Lenses

Lenses are narrow, lucid, and flexible disks that are used in our eyes to make our vision clear. These contact lenses actually cover the cornea of the eye. Like eyeglasses, lenses can improve our vision ability caused by refractive delusion.

On the other hand, you can use contact lenses to change your eye color as well. For example, if you love green, hazel eye color, or any other color, you can buy contact lenses of your choice. But before using contact lenses, you have to follow the instructions given by the optician.

Let’s watch this video and distinguish the differences between hazel and green eyes.

Conclusion

  • Eye colors depend on the amount of melanin present in the irises and the genes you inherit from your parents.
  • Brown eye color is the world’s most common eye color rather than other eye colors.
  • Green and hazel both colors are both attractive but in fact, they are the least common eye colors in the world.
  • Disease and other health issues may affect eye color during the lifetime.
  • Last but not least, no matter what eye color you have, it’s important to take good care of your eyes by wearing sunglasses.

Other Articles

Skip to content