If you haven’t completed the left-handed test yet, you can use this link to go to the survey form (it contains 12 Left/Right questions and will only take you a minute to complete).
This page gives our analysis of the surveys completed so far. By 27 May 2015 34,271 people had completed the survey and they declared their handedness as:
| Do you consider yourself to be left or right handed? | ||
| Left | 25,317 | 74% |
| Right | 3,127 | 9% |
| Both | 5,398 | 16% |
| Not answered | 433 | 1% |
| Total | 34,271 | 100% |
Of the people that consider themselves to be left-handed this is the percentage that answered each question “Left”:
| Question | % Left |
| Writing hand (we assume that the other 3% of people who consider themselves left-handed but said they write right-handed were forced to change their writing hand when they were young and have not changed it back) |
97% |
| Cutting with scissors (a lot of people mentioned that they use scissors right-handed because that was all that used to be available and they have never changed) |
70% |
| Holding a bat (one handed) | 78% |
| Eating with a spoon | 94% |
| Holding a toothbrush | 92% |
| Brushing hair | 89% |
| Eye (using a telescope) | 74% |
| Ear (using a telephone) (some people mentioned that they hold the phone to their right ear to leave their left hand free for taking notes. LHC’s Keith just gets in a tangle, holding the phone to his left ear with his right hand so he can still write with his left!) |
79% |
| Foot (kicking a ball) | 64% |
| Folding arms, which is on top | 68% |
| Clapping, which hand is on top | 81% |
| Clasping hands behind back, which hand is doing the holding | 77% |
| Throwing a ball | 77% |
| Turning the pages of a book | 74% |
| Using a bat or club two-handed (hand on bottom) (this question cause a lot of confusion with people thinking about “bottom” differently if they were holding the bat or club down, e.g. cricket or golf, or up for e.g. baseball. What we meant was the hand on the bottom being the one nearest the hitting end of the bat. If this is your left, you will be facing to your right looking over your right shoulder to see the ball coming) |
65% |
The percentage of people who consider themselves left-handed who were graded at each of our levels were:
| Grading | % of total |
| Seriously Left-Handed (>90% score) | 46% |
| Mainly left-handed (60-90% score) | 44% |
| Left but mixed-handed (40-60% score) | 7% |
| Probably a Right-Hander! (0-40%) | 3% |
The overall average score for people who consider themselves left-handed was 83%
And the number of people who scored 100% was 3,710 (15% of all the left-handers)
Of the 5,398 people who consider themselves “Both handed”, 60% use their left hand to write, 30% to cut with scissors and 67% used a phone on their left ear. Their overall weighted score was 55%.
Please add your own comments or interpretations as comments at the bottom of this page.
If you haven’t completed the left-handed test yourself yet, you can use this link to go to the survey form
After reading the comments below, I thought to add more info. I was born in 1950, went to catholic kindergarten and was never forced to use my right hand. My family consists of 10 brothers and sisters. None (including my parents) are left handed. Also no relatives that I was aware of was left handed. Why just me seems odd. I can see why I scored 100% and in the super lefty group. I do adapt well to the right hand world. Play guitar left handed. All my adult life was in construction, mostly as a welder and never had a serious accident with power tools. I wonder what the world would be like if the percentages of left handedness was reversed and we had the 90% and righties were only 10% 🤔
I do everything normal in a left handed way. I will circle clockwise. My thinking is strongly right brained. I am smart and quick witted. Jokingly I say my right arm is mostly for balance and symmetry.
Perhaps survey could have included what hand is used for a computer mouse. I ended up using a mouse right handed, simply because everyone else was and most computers were setup this way. As I helped others with their computers, it seemed easier to set mine up that way also.
I am 100% Left hanses.I an 77 years Young.On my first day at school my mother met the teacher and said my child is left handed and i want to remain that way.Thank you MOM.
I got left handed scissors as an adult, and discovered in a matter of moments, I could use scissors equally well with either hand. I prefer using my left hand with scissors. I am also left eye dominate. When I fold my arms, my right arm is on top. I practiced folding my arms and discovered that I raise my right arm and reach under it with my left and grab my right bicep. I do it this way every time.
I’m left handed and noticed I do a lot of the “learned” things with my right hand. Anything that I learned while playing sports (kicking, batting stance), at school like using scissors or from my mom (right handed) like clapping I will do with my right hand. Any activity that is ‘natural’ not learned I do with my left side like holding a utensil/pencil, goofy stance in snowboarding, folding my left arm over the right one, crossing my legs left over right…you get the idea. There are a lot of societal things that we are taught to do a certain way like shaking with your right hand…the left would be awkward to most people. Likewise I wear my wrist watch on my left wrist because that’s where everyone wears it…never got the memo that you are supposed to wear it on your non-dominant arm. I do look forward to more studies about left handers.
I consider myself a very proud Lefty but when I did the survey I was not able to answer how I wanted to answer sometimes ? ?
I have always considered myself a little freaky because of how I use my hands, the weirdest thing is how I use a screwdriver, if I am screwing a screw IN, then I use my right hand but if I am unscrewing a screw, then I use my LEFT hand.
Most items that are a singlehanded use I use my left hand, for example, hammers, garden hand fork or trowel, tennis racquet, pen or pencil, penknife but some items that are for TWO handed use I am RIGHT, for example, golf and cricket I play RIGHT.
I write left handed ALWAYS but I type on a keyboard with my right hand mainly because I am holding a wireless keyboard in my left hand I suppose, I use an air rifle either way, left or right
There are probably a lot more details available but I really have no desire to bore everyone to death
It’s so funny to see someone at the office coming over to my desk trying to show me something on the computer and start looking for a mouse.
I see myself as a total leftie. The only part of me that is stronger on the right is my fight eye. This is simply because my left eye is what is termed a ’lazy’ eye. The left eye muscle was not activated when i was a toddler so it remained blurry from infancy.. the left eye itself is perfectly healthy and would have been 20/20 vision had the muscle functioned properly .. I love being a leftie
I had to “fudge” on a few of the questions since I don’t play any sports. The closest I came to that was playing Fetch with my dog. still consider myself seriously left handed. As to the phone question, is there any way to accommodate people who hold the phone to the right ear because of hearing loss in the left ear?