Throughout history, redheads have been feared and revered, loathed and adored, degraded and exalted. There are degrees of redness when referring to hair, including ginger, auburn (red brown), and strawberry blonde. In other words, red hair varies from a deep burgundy through burnt orange to bright copper.

Redheads constitute approximately four percent of the European population. Scotland has the highest proportion of redheads, as 13 percent of the population has red hair and approximately 40 percent carries the recessive redhead gene. Ireland has the second highest percentage; as many as 10 percent of the Irish population have ginger, auburn or strawberry blond hair.

Red hair is also fairly common amongst the Jewish populations, possibly because of the influx of European DNA over a period of centuries, or in the original founding of their communities in Europe, although both Esau and David are described in the Bible as red-haired.

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