Left Handers Day is celebrated annually on August 13, though my left-handed kiddo will tell you we celebrate it all the time. Did you know about 10 percent of the population is left handed?
According to data gathered by leftyfretz.com, the nation with the highest population of lefties is the Netherlands, followed closely by the United States. Other top countries for southpaws include Canada, the United Kingdom and France, all of which had more than 10 percent of their population among the left handed. Apparently just 3.5 percent of the population of China is left handed.
The Left Handers Day website says that it’s thought there are more left handed women than men.
Scientists don’t actually know why people are born left handed, as both genetics and environment seem to play a role. Among those who completed a survey at the Left Handers Day website, 14 percent said their mother was left handed, and 13 percent said their father was. Eleven percent of all left handed people’s direct relatives were also left handed.
Check the website linked above for more interesting left handed facts. I find it interesting that in their survey, 98 percent of respondents said they write or draw with their left hand, but only 68 percent use scissors with their left hand. This is my daughter’s experience, too, as I’m not sure her preschool had left-handed scissors and her teacher just taught her the same way she was teaching everyone else.
If you have a leftie in your life, make them feel special this day! You can celebrate by having all the right-handed students/people in your family attempt to do things with their left hand, or do a little report on a famous left-handed person (a few to choose from: Barak Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Lady Gaga, Bill Gates, Leonardo DaVinci).
Do you celebrate Left Handers Day? I’d love to hear what you do!
[Image by Anna Prosekova from Pixabay]
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