this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2026
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Map showing frequency of red hair across Europe. Five color-coded ranges: red (over 10%) concentrated in Ireland and Scotland, orange (5-9%) in parts of UK and northern Europe, brown (2-4%) in Scandinavia and Germany, darker brown (1-2%) in central Europe, and darkest brown (under 1%) in southern Europe. Shows clear north-south gradient with highest concentrations in Celtic regions.

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[–] BenM2023@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Because the Vikings settled and formed The Russians around Ukraine, from where they spread and eventually formed Russia.

[–] CanadaPlus@futurology.today 1 points 12 hours ago

That's closer to Khazakhstan.

[–] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

But what about that red head spot?

There must be some (maybe forgotten) wild story about it

[–] CanadaPlus@futurology.today 1 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

Somebody with red hair had a lot of children there right before the population suddenly grew. Or maybe was one of the survivors when it regrew after a national disaster. The founder effect, in other words.

Other people are talking about selection. The numbers are in, that accounts for maybe 5% of genetic change over the last 10,000 years. The rest is just chaos.

[–] Skua@kbin.earth 3 points 1 day ago

I think that's Udmurtia. Udmurts are an Ugric minority people within Russia, and they've got a really high incidence of red hair