Red hair in North-East Europe

[Septentrion]

In which country of North-East Europe is red or reddish hair most common?

By Northeastern Europe, the following countries are found:
Finland
Estonia
Latvia
Lithuania
Some regions may be included such as:
Northern Poland
The Karelia Republic of Northwestern Russia
Leningrad Oblast, Russia
Northern Byelorussia
That's it.

[cyberlorian]

Finland I guess but not so common.

[Ruggery]

I think Russia.

[Morticia]

Either Finland or Russia.

[Septentrion]

Finland is the most redheaded in North-East Europe. Even in Russia, it's the Finnic tribes who are the most redheaded. I know those who wanted to count Russia because of the Urmurt Oblast, however that region is not in North-East Europe rather just East Europe.

[Septentrion]

The true Finnic type is not the East Baltic type that we often see in Eastern Finland,, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, northern Poland, Russia especially Karelia and the north, and even in Lappland. Rather it is the Fenno-Nordid which today is many times not pure, but found mixed with East Baltid. It is actually a red-haired type with "watery"-blue eyes. Many Finno-Ugric people of Russia, especially the Urdmurts are red-haired enough to complete with the British Islanders who lived on the extreme opposite side in North-West Europe. What puzzles me, is that the most "ginger-haired" populations in Europe and the world live on opposites of Europe.

[Laag]

For those who live somewhere in the South of Europe Udmurtia is pretty much North-Eastern Europe.

Spoiler!

Here's a chart based on Mark's data. The numbers for adult males.


Among Karelians, Vepsians, and Izhorians she found no redheads.

[Ymyyakhtakh]

Karin Mark must have had strict criteria for what she considered red hair though, because she classified only 2 people out of 1176 Estonians as red-haired.

Mark also classified 0 out of 430 persons from Western Finnish dialect areas as red-haired (excluding Northern Finland, which is counted as part of the Western Finnish dialect area). However she found that red hair was common in Northern Finland (3.5% in Salla, 2.6% in Ylitornio, and 1.3% in Savukoski).

Sample size	Percentage with red hair	Location	Subpopulation (based on dialect area)
99	0	Askola	Western Finns
76	0	Mynämäki	Western Finns
72	0	Kokemäki	Western Finns
96	0	Kurikka	Western Finns
87	0	Hauho	Western Finns
132	0.8	Keuruu	Eastern Finns
132	0.8	Ristiina	Eastern Finns
94	0	Kiuruvesi	Eastern Finns
100	0	Kesälahti	Eastern Finns
113	2.6	Ylitornio	Northern Finns
141	0.7	Kuusamo	Eastern Finns
142	3.5	Salla	Northern Finns
74	1.3	Savukoski	Northern Finns

Weighted averages:

Sample size	Percentage with red hair	Subpopulation (based on dialect area)
430	0	Western Finns
599	0.52	Eastern Finns
329	2.70	Northern Finns

Source: http://dspace.ut.ee/handle/10062/54756.

[RandomGuy20]

Finland is the most redheaded in North-East Europe. Even in Russia, it's the Finnic tribes who are the most redheaded. I know those who wanted to count Russia because of the Urmurt Oblast, however that region is not in North-East Europe rather just East Europe.

I've also heard that red hair in Russia and Belarus was mostly from German and Ashkenazi immigrants, maybe even the Viking Rus. What are your thoughts?

[Ymyyakhtakh]

Finland is the most redheaded in North-East Europe. Even in Russia, it's the Finnic tribes who are the most redheaded. I know those who wanted to count Russia because of the Urmurt Oblast, however that region is not in North-East Europe rather just East Europe.

The center of population of Udmurtia is at around latitude 57, or around the same as Latvia, and further north than Denmark and Lithuania. If Udmurtia is not Northeast Europe, then Lithuania is not either.

The term "Finnic" is treated as a synonym of the term "Baltic Finnic": "The Finnic (Fennic) or Balto-Finnic (Balto-Fennic, Baltic Finnic, Baltic Fennic)[a] languages are a branch of the Uralic language family spoken around the Baltic Sea by Finnic peoples. There are around 7 million speakers who live mainly in Finland and Estonia."

A term which includes all Uralic peoples of the Volga-Ural region along with Finnic and Saami people is "Finno-Permic": "The Finno-Permic languages (also Finno-Permian and Fenno-Permic/Permian), or sometimes just Finnic, are a proposed subdivision of the Uralic languages which comprises the Baltic Finnic languages, Sami languages, Mordvinic languages, Mari language, Permic languages and likely a number of extinct languages."

The term "Volga Finns" is usually not considered to include Udmurts or Komis.