As of 2025, Asia is the continent with the highest rates of inbreeding and cousin marriages. These rates are at its highest in West Asia and parts of South Asia and they gradually drop as you head eastward.
I’m surprised that Japan is in the same category as India and China. It would be interesting to see a world map that includes Europe, North America, South America, and Australia.
Derpazor1 on
Very interesting! I’d love to see the rest of the world
mechy84 on
Thread being locked in 3, 2, 1…
hoopparrr759 on
And you shall know the name, McPoyle!
cutelyaware on
I think you should plot the inbreeding coefficient, not consanguineous marriages, since that’s what people worry about, and they are not the same thing. Your data source includes both.
Young_Cato_the_Elder on
Why are cousins in Russia so unattractive?
Ribbitor123 on
In his book ‘The Weirdest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous’, Joseph Henrich describes how the Roman Catholic Church established a series of taboos on cousin marriage in medieval times. This, he claims, weakened social organization based on family ties and ultimately led to high-trust societies that have less corruption than kinship-based ones.
One unexpected consequence of societies with high levels inbreeding is that they are a treasure-trove for medical geneticists trying to link diseases to genes. Sadly, such societies tend to have rare genetic diseases found nowhere else in the world. While this can be devastating to the families involved, such diseases shed valuable light on biological mechanisms and disease progression.
BigLittleBrowse on
What’s classed as “inbreeding” here? First cousins, second?
4ur0r4 on
Now’s let’s see the USA by state and county.
MelodicAnything3245 on
To point out the causality:
In Islam it is permitted to marry ones cousin. But it’s not allowed to do twice, i.e the children of the couple may not marry someone whom they are related with.
Immediate Family is not allowed.
Not to say a Muslim should marry his cousin. In my humble opinion one should a stein from such relationships. But in the Muslim World it isn’t so frowned upon as in the west. It’s rather a common accurance.
Pathseg on
There is a common denominator for top 10 countries, infact even for countries like India, the inbreeding is mostly consolidated to people in that common denominator. But because the population itself is so high of people in that common denominator, India too shows up at 7.5% something.
Common Denominator for people who don’t get it – ISLAM (Religion).
_DataGuy on
You gotta provide a source I have so many questions
ThrowAwayGenomics on
This is the frequency of consanguineous (first cousin) marriages.
This really should not be described as inbreeding rate. OP is conflating consanguineous marriage rates and inbreeding coefficients which are both included in the source data.
BastiatF on
Wonder what all those countries in dark have in common
MemeHedonism on
If you compare it to the Autism Rates map, you can clearly see a connection.
There are several articles on that topic
Monsjoex on
How does this even work for pakistan? Its a huge country with very high population. Everyone just goes to their family dinner to pick their mates? Or is the dna diversity extremely low anyway?
CapitalEmployer on
This is as serious as the map of IQ. Very serious science indeed I am sure that the amount of inbred marriages in this village in the middle of the desert in 1940 is very representative of the whole country. I am fascinated how people love simple theories when it validates their fantasies. Don’t you wanna share some articles from Mankind Quarterly to add to the good science?
![Inbreeding Rates in Asia (%) [OC]](https://www.byteseu.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/f9vlqe0ky6bg1-1536x1221.png "Inbreeding Rates in Asia (%) [OC]")
18 Comments
[https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/inbreeding-by-country](https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/inbreeding-by-country)
As of 2025, Asia is the continent with the highest rates of inbreeding and cousin marriages. These rates are at its highest in West Asia and parts of South Asia and they gradually drop as you head eastward.
Countries with highest inbreeding rates in Asia:
1. Pakistan (61%)
2. Kuwait (55%)
3. Qatar (54%)
4. UAE (51%)
5. Afghanistan (49%)
6. Iraq (46%)
7. Yemen (45%)
8. Iran (39%)
9. Saudi Arabia (38%)
10. Oman (36%)
I’m surprised that Japan is in the same category as India and China. It would be interesting to see a world map that includes Europe, North America, South America, and Australia.
Very interesting! I’d love to see the rest of the world
Thread being locked in 3, 2, 1…
And you shall know the name, McPoyle!
I think you should plot the inbreeding coefficient, not consanguineous marriages, since that’s what people worry about, and they are not the same thing. Your data source includes both.
Why are cousins in Russia so unattractive?
In his book ‘The Weirdest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous’, Joseph Henrich describes how the Roman Catholic Church established a series of taboos on cousin marriage in medieval times. This, he claims, weakened social organization based on family ties and ultimately led to high-trust societies that have less corruption than kinship-based ones.
One unexpected consequence of societies with high levels inbreeding is that they are a treasure-trove for medical geneticists trying to link diseases to genes. Sadly, such societies tend to have rare genetic diseases found nowhere else in the world. While this can be devastating to the families involved, such diseases shed valuable light on biological mechanisms and disease progression.
What’s classed as “inbreeding” here? First cousins, second?
Now’s let’s see the USA by state and county.
To point out the causality:
In Islam it is permitted to marry ones cousin. But it’s not allowed to do twice, i.e the children of the couple may not marry someone whom they are related with.
Immediate Family is not allowed.
Not to say a Muslim should marry his cousin. In my humble opinion one should a stein from such relationships. But in the Muslim World it isn’t so frowned upon as in the west. It’s rather a common accurance.
There is a common denominator for top 10 countries, infact even for countries like India, the inbreeding is mostly consolidated to people in that common denominator. But because the population itself is so high of people in that common denominator, India too shows up at 7.5% something.
Common Denominator for people who don’t get it – ISLAM (Religion).
You gotta provide a source I have so many questions
This is the frequency of consanguineous (first cousin) marriages.
This really should not be described as inbreeding rate. OP is conflating consanguineous marriage rates and inbreeding coefficients which are both included in the source data.
Wonder what all those countries in dark have in common
If you compare it to the Autism Rates map, you can clearly see a connection.
There are several articles on that topic
How does this even work for pakistan? Its a huge country with very high population. Everyone just goes to their family dinner to pick their mates? Or is the dna diversity extremely low anyway?
This is as serious as the map of IQ. Very serious science indeed I am sure that the amount of inbred marriages in this village in the middle of the desert in 1940 is very representative of the whole country. I am fascinated how people love simple theories when it validates their fantasies. Don’t you wanna share some articles from Mankind Quarterly to add to the good science?