True red, pink and violet eye colors are the rarest eye colors.
The true red, pink and violet eye colors occur in less than 0.01% of the global population and are also almost exclusively linked to albinism.
Also excluding the medical conditions that cause the true red, pink and violet eye colors, green is also the rarest natural eye color in the world, which appears in only around 2 percent of people.
Red/violet eye colors are caused by a lack of melanin (albinism) which makes the iris transparent, allowing light to reflect off the blood vessels in the back of your eye.
Amber eye color is found in around 0.5% of the population, and these solid gold/copper eyes are also caused by high levels of yellow pigment called lipochrome and low melanin.
Green eye color affects around 2 percent of the world population and relies on a delicate genetic balance of low melanin and Rayleigh light scattering.
Gray eye color is found in around 3 percent of the world population and is also often considered to be the rarest eye color in the United States.
Blue eye color is also pretty rare and occurs in 8 percent to 10 percent of people, which results from the complete absence of melanin in the iris.
And brown eye color is the most common eye color, globally, which occurs in 70 percent to 79 percent of humans due to high levels of melanin.
Human eye color is mainly determined by the amount of the pigment called melanin in the iris and the way that light scatters through it.
It's a complex trait that is influenced by multiple genes.
The specific color of a humans eyes depends on the amount of melanin, light scattering or Tyndall scattering, intermediate colors, green, hazel and gray and genetics.
Scientists have now identified over a dozen genes that impact eye color.
The main genes are OCA2 and HERC2, which control melanin production and processing..
And because these genes mix and match in complex ways, children can also sometimes have eye colors that are completely unexpected from their parents.
Green, hazel and gray colored eyes are caused by moderate amounts of melanin combined with light scattering.
And blue eyes actually don't contain blue pigment, but instead the lack of pigment allows the light to scatter through the fibers of the iris, which reflects blue light back to the eye in a process that is called Tyndall scattering, which is similar to how the sky appears blue.
And melanin also absorbs light and irises with high concentrations of melanin absorb most incoming light, which results in brown eyes.
irises with very little melanin reflect and scatter light, which results in blue eyes.