Facts on Left Handed People
People who are left handed make up about 5-15% of the population
The genes for left-handedness are so far elusive
Lefties are relatively numerous among creative men
Lefties are relatively numerous among children rated as having an IQ higher than 131
Lefties are relatively numerous among individuals who are good at music and maths
Most left-handers draw figures facing to the right.
There is a high tendency in twins for one to be left-handed
Stuttering and dyslexia occur more often in left-handers (particularly if they are forced to change their writing hand as a child)
Left-handers adjust more readily to seeing underwater.
Left-handers excel particularly in tennis, baseball, swimming and fencing
Left-handers usually reach puberty 4 to 5 months after right-handers
4 of the 5 original designers of the Macintosh (Apple) computer were left-handed
1 in 4 Apollo astronauts were left-handed – 250% more than the normal level.
Almost 40% of the top tennis pros are left-handed
Left handed people are three times more likely than right handed people to become alcoholics (scientists speculate that it is because the right hemisphere of the brain has a lower tolerance for alcohol then the left side of the brain)
People who are left handed use the right side of the brain most while right handed people use the left side of the brain most (see Full Consciousness)
In Many cultures children who were left handed were forced to use there right hands instead.
More men than women are lefties
Left handed stroke victims recover faster than right handed stroke victims
Left-handers more likely than right handers to be creative geniuses
Left-handers were severely discriminated against during the 18th and 19th centuries and it was often “beaten out” of people
In adulthood, left-handers were often shunned by society, resulting in fewer marrying and reproducing
As discrimination was reduced in the 20th century, the number of natural left-handers who stayed left-handed increased
The rising age of motherhood contributed as, statistically, older mothers are more likely to give birth to left-handed children
Left-handers are also generally better at 3-dimensional perception and thinking
Left-handers are also usually pretty good at most ball sports and things involving hand-to-eye co-ordination
Left-handers’ brains are structured differently in a way that widens their range of abilities
A study found that left-handed men are 15% richer than right-handed men for those who attended college, and 26% richer if they graduated
Left-Hander’s Day is August 13th
In 60s music, Jimi Hendrix played a right-handed Fender Stratocaster strung upside down to accommodate his left-handedness. Paul McCartney of The Beatles is left-handed; when he first played for John Lennon , he played Lennon’s right-handed guitar upside-down. Ringo Starr of the Beatles is also left-handed
Left-handed persons are thought to process information using a “visual simultaneous” method in which several threads can be processed simultaneously.
Left-handed people have an excellent ability to multi-task
The hypothesis that left-handed people are predisposed to visual-based thought has been validated by a variety of evidence.
Left-handed university students are more likely to major in visually-based, as opposed to language-based subjects. Another sample of 103 art students found an astounding 47% were left- or mixed-handed.
In the Middle Ages, writing with your left hand was punishable by death
Half of left handed people use a computer mouse with their right hand (I’m one of them)
If both parents are left handed, 50% of their offspring will be left handed. 2 Righties only have 2% chance of having a leftie (both my parents were right-handed)
There are twice as many left handed boys than girls
Obama is left-handed
Tags : left handed people
great facts keep up the fabulous work
June 2, 2009 6:42 pm | #1Hi. I like the way you write. Will you post some more articles?
July 6, 2009 5:16 pm | #2Left-handedrs sometimes keep the same brain organization as right-handers and sometimes the brain of the left-hander mirrors the right-hand brain. Eye domination can show brain dominance. I am left-handed and right eyed. I have noticed in fact that the greater amount of people are right eyed; shown by which eye is used for aiming a gun. There’s more left-handedness in autism. One writer said that left-handers die earlier, he assumed it was a mismatch in a right-handed world. Some left-handers turned their writing tool “upsidedown” and write from the top [which I do]. Other left-handed hold the pen in a normal position, the same as a right-hander, only mirrored. I wonder is there are any left-handed violinists. I agree with all your observations. I have been in art classes full of left-handed men. I have noticed that lawyers tend to be left-handed, at the the brash bold type who end up on TV.
July 13, 2009 12:58 am | #3Thank you. You are welcome to put this article on your sites. Mary
March 3, 2010 2:15 am | #4jeez quite a few of the reviews readers put up make me laugh, routinely i wonder whether they seriously read the articles and reviews and items before posting or if perhaps they basically read the subject of the blog post and prepare the initial thought that drifts into their heads. in either case, it is really useful to look over smart commentary now and then compared to the exact same, outdated oppinion vomit that i normally observe on the web
March 4, 2010 6:32 pm | #5Kurt Cobain of Nirvana also played left handed. When he started playin at the age of 12, he restrung his right handed guitar to make it left handed and everyone complained that he played upside down, when infact he just reversed the strings. Also you can almost always spot a left handed person if you look at their left hand because more times then not, they will have ink on the edge of their hands from writing or drawing.
March 5, 2010 12:32 am | #6Good material…Thanks Kat!
March 6, 2010 2:02 am | #7Well that is what I try to do with my blogs – turn something that people believe is ‘complex’ and simplify the subject for everyone to understand . Thank you.
March 8, 2010 2:17 am | #8Thank you so much for this. Im doing a science project and I needed facts for my research paper so thank you a lot!:) i think its funny your listing all these facts and ur last one is…obama is left-handed:) THANKS!
March 16, 2010 1:54 pm | #9My daughter is left handed and I can barely teach her how to right… this site has been very informative….
March 18, 2010 8:33 pm | #10I’m proud to be left handed! Both of my parents are right handed, and 3 of us 4 kids are left handed! Pretty sweet
March 19, 2010 11:23 pm | #11If Being Left Handed Is Wrong,
yes iam a southpaw.
March 20, 2010 6:37 am | #12I Don’t Want To Be Right
Hi, I liked your article. I have a few questions. I recently took my 8 yr old boy for an eye test and the optomitrist mentioned that my son should be left handed and not right handed! He writes with his left hand but reads very slowly, other observations also indicated that he is actualy left handed. My husband and myself are right handed but my dad inlaw is left haneded. We never forced his to write right handed but the opt said that he saw that we are right handed and teached himself! Have you ever heard something like this before? How do I correct this?
March 23, 2010 4:15 am | #13i like this. i am a lefty an both parents are right handed and so is my brother? im the only lefty in the family.
March 23, 2010 4:57 am | #14100% of modern left-handed democratic presidents showed an overwhelming propensity to ruin the country.
March 28, 2010 9:57 am | #15Lefties can also write in the air with their left hand.
March 30, 2010 11:02 am | #16were all born right-handed only the great ones over come it!
April 9, 2010 4:10 am | #17I love learning new things about left handed people, since I am one myself… I actually love being left handed because it is unique. I love hearing, “oh we got a lefty here!” I actually play many instruments, paint and draw, so I totally understand where they are coming from when they say lefties are more articulate. No one in my family other than myself is left handed, but I can do a good amount of things right handed. When I play the guitar I also flip it upside down sometimes. And I totally agree with the person above saying you can spot a lefty because of ink or lead being on the side of our hand, that part sucks though. Awesome stuff!!
April 11, 2010 9:29 pm | #18I love to hear “Oh your left handed” my art teacher used to make fun of me because i would always paint right to left so i wouldnt get paint on my hand and she would always say “There he goes again painting backwards.” My dad tried to make me write right handed as a child but he should be glad with a only 2% chance since my mom was a righty too.
April 16, 2010 3:17 pm | #19hmmm gr8 facts
April 22, 2010 3:17 am | #20m also the one who being a lefty use mouse with right hand….
i agree with you about left handed people.They are so mistreated!!!! Thanks!
April 22, 2010 11:48 am | #21Brandy , i so agree with you about those facts , please publish more of those facts
, since im a left hander my own , i super love being a lefty too 
April 24, 2010 9:49 am | #22wow, i can’t multi-task for nothing. and i’m left handed haha. (:
May 2, 2010 4:08 pm | #23Thank you for all the intersting facts. Myself & my twin sister are both Left handed even though our parent’s were right handed. My ex husband was right handed & our only child a Son is Left handed. I didn’t realise that the persentage of Left hander’s was so low, but it is nice being special. David Cameron is Left handed…..
May 4, 2010 5:28 pm | #24Thank you for the information you put in your article. My husband is left handed and I am right handed. We have 2 sons and they are both left handed. I was wondering what the chance of a right hander and left hander had to have 2 left handed children. My one son loves to draw and has a great imagination. The other son is still too young to tell, but he love to play ball.
May 13, 2010 9:24 am | #25One of my brother’s is left handed and he is smarter than my other brother plus he’s a better drawer and he’s a year younger than my other bro.
May 13, 2010 7:58 pm | #26Reading the list of facts, some are true to me, i use the mouse of a computer with my right hand, both my parents are right handed also are my two sisters and my brother how can that be of a southpaw
May 17, 2010 10:24 am | #27aprntly when i was younger i used to write back wards; lolz – lefties are cool
May 20, 2010 7:57 am | #28we will rule the world – lolz
wow nice… both my paerents r righties 2 yet both me and my lil bro r lefties.
May 21, 2010 1:37 am | #29I am a lefty, and I live in the world or right handedness, I have 3 siblings and they are all right handed, along with all my parents. When we go out to eat, I have to sit on the corners of the tables so I don’t “bump elbows” with anyone. Lol, I’m also a drummer, I play right handed drum set, but I use open hand sticking, as well as cross sticking, because I can do bot equally as well.
It’s my little twist on music. 
May 21, 2010 5:28 pm | #30I am the only one in my family that uses my left hand for many things. I am a self taught lefty. I have noticed that the older I get the more left handed I get. I use a mouse left handed with the buttins switched around. I bowl, play gutiar, play pool and even use the tv remote left handed. I used to use a right handed can opener backwards, but now have a left handed one. I know for me that I have had to be creative to learn how to figure out on my own how to do things backward or how to addapt to doing things differently.
May 25, 2010 2:48 am | #31There is also a book or 2 out there about lefties and a book of left-handed items rarely found in regular stores.
May 25, 2010 9:23 am | #32Although, the alcohol one is wrong… It should say that the right hemisphere has a HIGHER tolerance (allows it more easily).
See, I’m left-handed too! We just can’t help being geniuses…
May 28, 2010 9:51 pm | #33it actually cheered me up……….
May 30, 2010 7:41 am | #34This is great info I Have four sons three of them are left handed.
June 3, 2010 1:28 pm | #35Thankyou, this made me feel awesome, both my parents are left handed and i feel exclusive to be in a very small minority of the world. (left handed girl)
woop woop. 
June 7, 2010 3:49 pm | #36Thank you, I needed to know that. I was born left handed and just like you said was shunned and told that it was “the hand of the Devil” and I was forced to switch to my right hand. I am now ambidexterous but I wonder, did changing the hand I write with change the side of the brain I work with, and in essence, change the path of my life?
June 8, 2010 6:45 pm | #37i’m left-handed and i believe some of the statements you made are wrong :/
June 9, 2010 11:40 am | #38I am left handed and am really not very good at mathematically based subjects or musical things, but I am actually quite good at English based subjects.
June 29, 2010 4:40 am | #39Im left handed and Ive noticed that i have a habit of reading magazines from back to front instead of the other way. I wonder is this a left handed thing? I also heard that the percentage of left handed amputees is much higher than that of right handed amputees. This is because when using machinery, the emergency stop buttons are placed in reach of right handed people!
July 3, 2010 6:02 pm | #40Im a lefty. I recently discovered my talents as acting, writing, playing music and speaking/teaching. Guess I have talents many would envy.
July 11, 2010 10:12 pm | #41If all this is true why does Obama suck so bad?
July 16, 2010 11:49 am | #42Im with Emilie, I also find that I read a magazine from the back to the front. I am in a signing group and we are all supposed to be signing in sync. When I first started I had a really hard time because I was doing everything opposite to my nature. Now I can sign with both hands.
July 16, 2010 1:29 pm | #43I am left handed…. and when I write, I start to the right and finish to left.
July 18, 2010 9:48 pm | #44I am a lfty to ! I wrt vy wel! I lve spllin new wrds!
July 19, 2010 5:47 pm | #45“i feel exclusive to be in a very small minority of the world. (left handed girl)”
Are you guys really this uncomfortable with your left handedness? You are just people, if I met you I wouldn’t even notice you were left handed. If I found out, I wouldn’t care. It is more important whether your a jerk or not.
July 22, 2010 12:38 pm | #46I was looking for the “death toll” MYTH to show someone how statistical data is 99% bunk (this stat I just gave is a joke, if you get it awesome if not……oh well). Came across this site and cant believe people can be this insecure. Just love yourself and others will follow…sheeessshhh….
i am very comfortable being left handed, i have two sons my biological son is a right hander, my adopted son, is a southpaw my wife a right hander maybe once you’ve been with a leftie you don’t want to go back only kidding as a child i met my best mate 53years ago because we were both beaten across our knuckles to stop us writing with our left hands so they sat us next to each other because we didn’t cave into them and gave us a great friendship to last foreverhow about left handed polo
July 25, 2010 9:09 am | #47I am a left handed and I was forced to write using my right hand when my left arm accidentaly broke during 6yo in a basketball tourney.
July 28, 2010 1:13 am | #48Your column is true because I understand and learn faster using graphical presentation rather than the wordy one.
Thanks and more power to my co-left handed creation of almighty.