Where do the British ginger roots come from?

What do Prince Harry, Nicole Kidman, Rupert Grint and Geri Halliwell all have in common? No, they don’t all have royal roots…they have ginger ones! Many international students are fascinated by the abundance of red hair when they come Britain and it is true that, especially amongst the Scots, gingerness is at its most prevalent here. Whilst only about 1 – 2 % of the world’s population has red hair, a whopping 13% of Scots are ginger, closely followed by Ireland with 10%. Traditionally there has been a bizarre prejudice against redheads in Britain but more recently it has become a more desirable feature with many people choosing to dye their hair red. But why are there so many more ginger people in Scotland? A recent study by researchers at the ScotlandsDNA project shows that a much higher proportion of people in Scotland carry the ‘ginger gene’ and Mr Moffat, their Managing Director, believes the origins of the gene may be an adaptation to Scotland's poor weather.

Mr Moffat explains: "I think it's to do with sunshine - we all need vitamin D from sunshine - but Scotland is cloudy, we have an Atlantic climate and we need light skin to get as much vitamin D from the Sun as possible."

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