Young Red Haired Girl Portrait

Modern
Today, red hair is most commonly found at the northern and western fringes of Europe; it is associated particularly with the people located in the United Kingdom and in Ireland (although Victorian era ethnographers claimed that the Udmurt people of the Volga were "the most red-headed men in the world"). Redheads are common among Germanic and Celtic peoples.
Redheads constitute approximately 4 per cent of the European population. Scotland has the highest proportion of redheads; 13 per cent of the population has red hair and approximately 40 per cent carries the recessive redhead gene. Ireland has the second highest percentage; as many as 10 per cent of the Irish population has red, auburn, or strawberry blond hair. It is thought that up to 46 percent of the Irish population carries the recessive redhead gene. A 1956 study of hair colour amongst British army recruits also found high levels of red hair in Wales and the English Border counties.
Red-hair is found commonly amongst Ashkenazi Jewish populations, possibly due to 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. In European culture, prior to the 20th century, red-hair was often seen as a stereotypically Jewish trait: during the Spanish Inquisition, all those with red-hair were identified as Jewish. In Italy, red hair was associated with Italian Jews, and Judas was traditionally depicted as red-haired in Italian and Spanish art. Writers from Shakespeare to Dickens would identify Jewish characters by giving them red-hair. The stereotype that red-hair is Jewish remains in parts of Eastern Europe and Russia.