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
I’m mostly left handed, in the 60-90% (75%). Recently I’ve been asked at physical therapy evaluations, which is my dominant hand. I didn’t know how to answer that. The PT handed me a tool of some sort and had me squeeze it. My right hand is stronger than my left. I assume my right hand is dominant. My mom had to tell some of my teachers that I was left handed. I would print/write from right to left. It’s been a lifelong challenge, although I’m extremely happy that we have left handed scissors.
As a child I thought there was something wrong with me. Everything took longer to do. After 76 years in a right-hand world I have decided that “we” had to be smarter because we had to look at the world and turn everything around. Then either fix or do it. I also think libraries shelve the books wrong way. They should go from the back to the front.
Several years ago I read (for the first time) that International left-handers day is August 13. Since I am left-handed,this surprised me because my birthday is August 13!
I use “right-handed” scissors with my left hand! Like most lefties I adapted. I actually can’t use “left-handed” scissors. I write with my paper slanted left, as a right-hander, (almost 90°) and write moving away from me. I notice most lefties write toward themselves…
I’m 64 and I grew up in a right handed world that had very few allowances for left handed people. I played the violin with my right hand and use both hands when needed for other tasks. When I was in grade school the teachers tried to make me use my right hand. I always sit at the far end of a booth to prevent bumping elbows while eating. I was so glad when more allowances were finally made for left handers.
I think I survived many years later as a left/right hander. However, most of my jobs have been using both hands with fine details. Seamstress, artist, tapestry work, secretarial positions with right handed equipment at times, etc.
My 1st grade teacher saw me writing with both hands, and smacked my right hand with a ruler. Due to pain, I resumed writing with my left hand
When I completed the survey many years ago I reported that I did everything lefthanded except holing a telephone. At the time I used a phone at work and needed my left hand to dial the number (on a traditional phone) and handle papers and write with my left hand whilst holding the handset in my right.
I used to kick (lol) right-handed people out of left handed seats at university when I needed one.
Nice! 🙂 I wish I had been that brave back in the day! (I am now, but I graduated university over 25 years ago. Ha! Oh well… I survived.)
I have always been a bit outspoken! I speak up when people really piss me off. taking/using things that are meant for others is one thing that pisses me off.
In grade school they didn’t have any left handed desks. It was almost painful. I never really thought anything was wrong with me, everyone else was backwards. I’m 69 and have come to realize that I’m the backwards one.
At one point in my career I was buying in furniture to equip university tutorial rooms; being left handed I thought I would make a stand and ordered 10% of the chairs with writing tablets on the LHS instead of the usual RHS that I had learned to live with in my college years. It was a wasted effort! The LHS tablets were only used by the latecomers, 90% of whom were right handed. I suspect that the left handed students were so accustomed to RH tablets that they either didn’t notice the LH ones or just sat wherever their friends sat.
I next tried chairs with tablets that could be positioned on either side of the chair but by the end of the first week of tutorials all the tablets were on the RHS and stayed that way for the rest of the year.
Left-handers are very good at adapting to a right handed world; we have to be to survive and perhaps that’s why we 10% are still around and have not been evolved out of the equation.
see above reply from cindy.