What Percentage of People Are Left Handed?

Most individuals you probably know are right-handed. So, what percent of people are left-handed? In this article, you'll find the answer to the said question.

What Percentage of People Are Left-Handed?

Left-handed individuals appear to have been forgotten by civilization, considering how devices are made specifically for the right hand. Desks, chairs, instruments, and kitchen tools are mostly designed for right-handed persons, which makes things uncomfortable for left-handed people. That is because they are the minority.

The percentage of left-handed people is approximately 10%. The remaining individuals are right-handed, while about 1% are ambidextrous, meaning they lack a dominant hand.

What turns a person left-handed remains unclear. Research suggests a complicated interaction between genes and the environment. However, scientists are unsure exactly how this works.

People who use their left hand more frequently than their right have more left-handed family members, even though no specific set of "leftie genes" has been identified. Additionally, righties and lefties have different brain circuitry, according to studies.

Whatever the motivation behind this, science has also discovered a specific set of psychological characteristics that left-handed persons frequently possess. In addition to being outnumbered by righties by a ratio of nearly nine to one, lefties also seem to be at higher risk for some health issues.

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Lefties At Risk of Various Health Problems

Prior research has indicated that left-handedness accounts for 20% of the psychotic probability; however, a recent tiny study published in the journal SAGE suggests that this percentage may be considerably greater. Researchers from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas evaluated 107 patients at outpatient psychiatric clinics. Eleven percent of those with mood disorders, such as bipolar disorder or depression, were left-handed, which is about average. However, the percentage of left-handedness was 40% among individuals with psychosis, such as those with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, which is significantly higher than average. Scientists speculate that the laterality of the brain is involved.

Another study indicated that left-handed people had a higher risk of dyslexia, ADHD, and several learning and mood problems. Many scientists think this phenomenon has something to do with how the brain is built, though they are unsure how to explain it. The left and right halves of your brain are separated from one another.

For skills such as language functioning, most people- lefties and righties alike- rely on the brain's left hemisphere. However, approximately 30% of those who are left-handed either have no dominant hemisphere or are partially hemisphere-biased. Some left-handers are more susceptible to learning disabilities and brain illnesses because, in the opinion of scientists, having one hemisphere dominate is far more efficient.

A 2011 study shows left-handers are far more likely to experience periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD). Involuntary, repeated limb movements during sleep are the hallmarks of this illness, which throws off your sleep cycles.

However, left-handed individuals tend to be more creative. They excel in one facet - divergent thinking, a technique for generating ideas considering various potential solutions. They also score higher in imagination, daydreaming, and intuition.