How Many People in the World Have Black Hair?

Hair color refers to the pigment that is found in hair follicles. The pigmentation of these follicles is caused by two types of melanin, namely pheomelanin and eumelanin. If the level of eumelanin is high, then the hair color will be generally darker and vice versa. Predictably, pheomelanin causes blonde hair with the level of blondeness depending on the amount of the substance. Higher levels of pheomelanin mean increased blondeness and vice versa. An important thing to keep in mind is that the color of hair can change over time. In addition, one person can have differently colored hair follicles.

Black Hair in the World

This hair color has other names such as raven black, jet-black, and soft black. People with black hair have the darkest hair as well as the most common hair color in the world. The reason for such dominance of this color is that the genetic trait is dominant for a huge part of the population. In fact, all ethnicities have this genetic trait regardless of the color of the skin. Unsurprisingly, people with this hair color have plenty of eumelanin.

In the world, about 70% of the population has black hair or a variation of black hair. These people are mostly concentrated in three regions and continents namely Africa, pre-Columbian Americas, and Asia. Other regions where it is common include Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, and Latin America regardless of the ethnical background. A good example of this color breaking the ethnical barrier is the presence of black hair on some Spanish and Portuguese people. 

Naturally, hair reflects light, which is why even black hair does not appear fully dark in the light. However, the darkest shade of black hair, raven-black, does not behave as normal hair would in the light. The name of the color comes from a raven’s wing due to similarities in behavior. Appearing as being almost blue in some conditions, this hair color is mostly found with people from Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and Latin America. Despite these regions having populations that have predominantly white hair, some individual countries are dominated by people with other hair colors. Some of these countries include Turkey, Lebanon, Armenia, and Georgia.