๐ How Rare Are You in China?
๐จ๐ณ Genetic Landscape of China
With 1.4 billion people and 56 recognized ethnic groups, China harbors more genetic diversity than most people realize โ though the Han majority (91%) dominates the averages. Uyghurs in Xinjiang carry Central Asian and European genetic markers including lighter eyes, while Tibetans have unique high-altitude adaptations. The north-south genetic gradient is significant: northern Chinese tend to be taller and lighter-skinned than their southern counterparts. Rh-negative blood is almost nonexistent, making it one of the rarest traits in China.
Names carry the arithmetic. A small set of surnames covers a striking share of the population โ Wang, Li, Zhang, Liu and Chen each belong to more people than live in many countries โ and the old primer that lists them, the Hundred Family Surnames, has been drilled into schoolchildren since the Song dynasty. Given names run in the opposite direction: parents compose them freshly from the character stock rather than drawing on a fixed stock of inherited first names, so a given name can be genuinely one of a kind even when the family name is shared with tens of millions. Rarity here is therefore almost never a matter of the surname and almost always a matter of what follows it.
๐ชช Your birth date is written into your ID number
The 18-digit citizen ID number is not a serial. Its layout is set by national standard GB 11643-1999, ๅ ฌๆฐ่บซไปฝๅท็ , published by the State Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision on 19 January 1999, in force from 1 July 1999 and still listed as current on the standards administration's own portal. The standard splits the number into a six-digit address code, an eight-digit birth-date code, a three-digit sequence code and one check digit.
The sequence code is the part that matters here. A county government page in Hubei, carrying the provincial public security service account, sets it out: digits 15 to 17 number the residents born on the same year, month and day inside the area that address code covers, and the 17th digit is odd for men and even for women. So your own number is a position in an ordered queue of people registered in that district with your exact birth date — the sorting was done long before you wondered how rare that date was. See birthday rarity.
๐๏ธ Eye Color
| Dark Brown | 94% |
| Brown | 5% |
| Other | 1% |
๐ Hair Color
| Black | 95% |
| Dark Brown | 4% |
| Other | 1% |
๐ฉธ Blood Type
| O+ | 34% |
| A+ | 28% |
| B+ | 25% |
| AB+ | 10% |
| O- | 1% |
| A- | 1% |
| B- | 0.7% |
| AB- | 0.3% |
Trait frequencies on this page come from public and institutional datasets โ see Data Sources.
🧮 Calculate Your Rarity in China
Pick your eye colour, hair colour and blood type. The calculator uses China's own figures from the tables above, not world averages.
This is an estimate, not a measurement. It multiplies three national frequencies as if they were independent, and they are not: eye and hair colour share pigmentation genes, so a combination that tends to run together, such as blue eyes with blonde hair, is more common than the multiplication suggests, while one that rarely does, such as blue eyes with black hair, is rarer. Blood type is independent of both. The frequencies are national averages from public datasets — see Data Sources.
That number describes the body you were born with. Fraeon, our other site, does the same arithmetic for the part you chose: the films, series, games, books, anime and manga you have actually finished. Start your log →
โ๏ธ A register of legal characters, not legal names
What a name may be written in is standardised here at the level of the characters themselves. The Table of General Standard Chinese Characters was approved by the State Council as ๅฝๅใ2013ใ23ๅท on 5 June 2013 and published on 19 August 2013: 8,105 characters in three levels of 3,500, 3,000 and 1,605. That third level exists for surname and personal-name characters, place names, scientific and technical terms and classical-Chinese school texts that did not make the first two. Work on it started in April 2001.
Article 4 of the Resident Identity Card Law says the card is filled in with standardised Chinese characters and number symbols meeting national standards, and that ethnic autonomous areas may enter the same content in the script of the autonomous ethnic group or another locally used one. A man in Yingtan, Jiangxi, named ่ตตC by his father, got a first-generation ID card under that name in 2005 and ran into trouble renewing it in 2006. He won at first instance on 6 June 2008; the Ministry of Public Security replied on 31 October 2008 (ๅ ฌๅคๅญใ2008ใ6ๅท) that name entries must use standardised Chinese characters; the two sides settled out of court on 26 February 2009, with him taking a name written in characters. See name rarity.
๐ The lunar calendar has a standards number
Alongside the Gregorian civil calendar, China promulgates a lunisolar one, and how it is worked out is not left to almanac makers. It has a national standard: GB/T 33661-2017, ๅๅ็็ผ็ฎๅ้ข่ก, published in English as "Calculation and promulgation of the Chinese calendar". It was issued on 12 May 2017, took effect on 1 September 2017, and is still listed as current on the standards administration's portal.
The filing entry says something about how it is treated. The department listed over the standard is the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and it sits under international classification 07.040 and Chinese classification A46. The title covers two things, calculation and promulgation. If you are counting birthdays, it matters which of the two calendars your date is in. See birthday rarity.
โญ Rare Facts About China
Which of these numbers has an institution behind it
Population and the 91.11% Han share come from the Seventh National Population Census, Bulletin No. 2, National Bureau of Statistics, 11 May 2021. The height figures come from the Report on Nutrition and Chronic Diseases Status of Chinese Residents (2020), released by the National Health Commission on 23 December 2020: 169.7 cm for men aged 18–44 and 158.0 cm for women. Eye and hair colour are not registered on a resident ID — Article 3 of the Resident Identity Card Law lists the ten items that are, and pigmentation is not among them. Our percentages for those two are estimates, not measurements we can point at a register for. Last checked: September 2026.