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Eye and hair colour studies of Bulgarians from various parts of the country by Metodi Popov
I post these surveys of respectable Bulgarian biologist, anthropologist and diplomat Metodi Popov which deal with eye and hair colour in my country.
But first several words for the author of these studies:
- Born in Shumen in 1881, dr. Metodi Popov is the brother of Bulgarian mathematician academic Kiril Popov. He graduated Natural science in Sofia (1904), then specializing Biology in Munich, Berlin and Paris. After his return he was a lecturer at Sofia University "Saint Kliment Ohridski", being also its rector between 1920 and 1921. Between 1923 and 1931 he served as Bulgarian ambassador in Germany. He returned to Bulgaria because of disagreeing with the rising Nazi propaganda and theories claiming Nordic superiority over other Europoids. Popov was a Bulgarian Academy of Sciences member and leader of the Institute of Zoology. He died in 1954 (R.I.P.). The Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research at the above-mentioned Academy of Sciences is named after him, as well as The Mathematics and Physics High School in Varna.
Metodi Popov
Things you should know when reading the information below:
1) Metodi Popov and all other Bulgarian authors I know (current and past) never used obscure terms like ''light hair'' you nowadays see on some maps on the net. When talking about blond hair they meant literally blond (ash to dark blond and strawberry blond). Never did they combine light brown and blond shades. Hair colour is often, as in Popov case, based on the Fischer-Saller scale (A-O). Our authors include nuances from ash/very light blond to dark blond and strawberry blond. Nothing more, nothing less.
2) The larger cities presented in what I for the purpose of this thread will call Group A all contain data based on more than 7000 men (and 7000 women) for each of them. The smaller cities I'll place in Group B are all based on samples of between 1000-1500 men (and respectively the same numbers for ladies).
3) Only adults are counted. People of age 20+, often above 30 years old.
4) In all cases, except where specified, percentages deal with ethnic Bulgarians only (no minorities included).
5) Eyes counted as light in Popov's study are dubbed as ''blue'' and ''green". They are based on the Martin scale. Other (especially more recent) surveys place gray as a separate category which is, in my opinion, a more precise and better approach. However, here we assume that some (though not necessarily all) gray eyes were counted as blue or green. This blue/green total number, of course, DOES NOT include intermediate eye colour (a.k.a. hazel) and probably not all light-mixed eyes were included in the blue/green division, too. Thus, you should mind the remainder of eye colours other than blue and green includes brown but also hazel and most likely some even mixes of blue/green/grayish.
6) Scheme shall be read in male/female order. Gentlemen are first here (even if this isn't a gentleman deed).
16/21 blondism means 16% of the men and 21% of the women have blond hair.
So, here's the data:
Group A - male/female - blond hair distribution:
Ruse - 12/14
Stara Zagora - 12/17
Burgas - 13/13
Vraca - 14/20
Pleven - 14/17
Varna - 14/15
Blagoevgrad - 17/17
Sofia - 18/18
Plovdiv - 20/13
As you can see, Ruse and Burgas are the least blond-haired of Bulgaria's largest cities. An interesting fact is that only in some cities are women blonder than men - we have a parity in this aspect in Burgas, Blagoevgrad and Sofia, and in the city of Plovdiv males show a higher degree of blondism than ladies.
Group B - male/female - blond hair distribution:
Razlog - 23/18
Chepinci - 18/21
Asenovgrad - 39/26 (highest degree of blondism out of all places studied, men are clearly blonder in this city but women are also blondest)
Smolyan - 23/19
These cities, while smaller than those in previous group, aren't that small. Asenovgrad in particular has never been a small city in the true sense.
Blue and green eyes combined - male/female:
Sofia - 45/34
Pleven - 44/33
Blagoevgrad - 43/35
Vraca - 42/37
Stara Zagora - 42/37
Varna - 40/32
Plovdiv - 40/36
Burgas - 39/27
Ruse - 35/41
Bessarabian Bulgarians from Romania, Moldova and Ukraine - 44/35
Bulgarians from the Dobrudja region - 65/65 (The lightest-eyed region of the country achieving this percentage without hazel eyes being counted.)
Average percentage of blue and green eyes combined for other Bulgarian areas (excluding Dobrudja) - male/female:
- 42/35
Dobrudja is the area located north from Varna and eastwards Ruse:
Metodi Popov's studies are pretty comparable with other results we get for hair/eye colour distribution in the country.
"Според статистика от 20 век, българите са между 9-12% от рус тип, 42–47% от тъмен тип, а 43–46% са междинен (светлокоси и тъмнооки или обратното)."
"Генетично, днешните българи са по-тясно свързани със някои балкански популации (македонци, сърби, румънци, черногорци), отколкото с останалите европейци. Според автозомни анализи, съседните гърци имат по-голяма генетическа дистанция спрямо българите, отколкото народи като чехи и словаци, а съседните турци още по-голяма. Според различни митохондриални анализи българите са най-сходни с поляци, чехи или унгарци."
First quote means the following:
"According to statistics from the 20th century (depending on the region) between 9-12% of Bulgarians are blond with light eyes, 42-47% are brunette with brown or hazel eyes and 43-46% are of transitional type (brunette with light eyes or blond with brown to hazel eyes)."
This corresponds to other analysis of the population stating that about half of Bulgarian people have light eyes and blondism accounts to roughly 20% of the total population. Pure brown eyes (excluding hazel) probably account to 35-40% of the population depending on the area in question.
Second quote translation:
"Genetically modern Bulgarians are most closely related to other Balkan groups (Macedonians, Serbs, Romanians, Montenegrins) and after that to other Europeans. Autosomal analyses show that neighbouring Greeks are more distant to Bulgarians than nations like Czechs and Slovaks are, and Turks are even more distant to Bulgarians than Greeks are. Mitochondrial analyses show that Bulgarians are closest to Polish people, Czechs and Hungarians."
Last thing I want to share is the information about red/reddish brown/reddish blond hair (basically, rufosity frequency) in my state. It varies from 1 to 4% of the population depending on the area. Most score between 2-3%. It's most common in the provinces of Razgrad and Targovishte. Among Pomaks it reaches 4,1%.
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Originally Posted by The Blade
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