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What are the most important fingerprint types? The most detailed system for fingerprint classification was presented in 1985 by the F.B.I.'s "The Science of Fingerprint". In the F.B.I. system 8 types of fingerprints are described: 2 arch variants, 2 loop variants, and 4 whorl variants - see the picture below. However, since 1985 researchers have continued to use various other approaches to classify the most common fingerprint variants. Usually the 4 most common variants of these 8 types (arches, radial loops, ulnar loops & whorls) are discriminated. And because these 4 most common variants are easy to discriminate from eachother, we will focuss on the prevalence of only these variants around the world. 
Which is the most common fingerprint type in the world? The table below shows fingerprint distribution results for 12 countries, displaying that in 9 of the 12 populations the LOOPS are the most common fingerprint pattern type. Only in the populations from China, India & New Guinea are WHORLS more common than LOOPS. The 'pattern index' for China, England, Iran, Israel, Korea, Nigeria, Yemen, New Guinea & Vietnam is close to the expected values according the fingerprint-world-map. And as expected: - the highest 'pattern index' is found in New Guinea; - and Nigeria and England belong to the 3 populations that have a clearly lower 'pattern index'. Only for the USA is the 'pattern index' clearly lower than expected; and for Argentina is the 'pattern index' clearly higher than expected. CONCLUSION: The results correlate significantly with the fingerprint-world-map that was presented in 1953! The average percentages indicate that LOOPS are typically seen in a small majority of all fingers around the world (confirmed in 8 out of the 12 populations). WHORLS are sometimes more common than loops (confirmed for only 3 populations), but rarely the percentage is higher than 50% (only seen in New Guinea). NOTICE: In the table below are 'plain arches' and 'tented arches' grouped as ARCHES; and 'double loop whorls', 'plain whorls', 'central pocket loop whorls' and 'accidental whorls' are grouped as WHORLS.
Sources: 1) A study on the dermatoglyphic patterns of Okrika and Ikwerre ethnic groups of Nigeria (E.A. Osunwoke et al., 2008); 2) The use of dermal configurations in the diagnosis of mongolism (F. Walker, 1958); 3) Dermatoglyphics in Medical Disorders  (B. Schaumann & M. Alter, 1976);4) Finger prints, Palms and Soles  (H. Cummins & C. Midlo, 1943);5) Fingerprint-patterns in mongolism (S. Holt, 1964); 6) Quantitative Dermatoglyphics  (D.Z. Loesch, 1983);7) A study of Iranaian Muslims - Part 1: Finger patterns and ridge-counts (M. Mehdipour & D.D. Farhud, 1978); 8) Dermatoglyphic sexual dimorphism in Yemenite Jews (S. Micle & E. Kobyliansky, 1987); 9) Dermatoglyphic sexual dimorphism in Middle Eastern Jews (S. Micle & E. Kobyliansky, 1987); 10) Dermatoglyphic Characteristics of Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (Sung-Bae Hwang et al., 2005); 11) Dermatoglyph groups Kinh Vietnamese to Mon-Khmer (Hui Li et al., 2006); 12) Dermatoglyphic changes during the population admixture between Kam and Han Chinese (Xu Cheng et al., 2009); 13) Dermatoglyphics: An International Perspective  (J. Mavalwala, 1978);14) Dermatoglyphics: comparison between Negritos Orang Asliand the Malays, Chinese and Indian (E. Ismail et al., 2009); 15) Finger Dermatoglyphic variations in Rengma Nagas of Nagaland India (S.D. Banik et al., 2009); 16) Dermatoglyphics of the Fore and Anga populations of the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea (C.C. Plato & D.C. Gajdusek, 1972);
The results in the table show that in all populations in each of the 10 fingers the ulnar loop or the whorl is always the most common fingerprint pattern type. In both the right hand and the left hand the ulnar loop is found in a large majority of all 12 populations on the pinky finger. A likewise situation is seen in the middle finger, though in the population of New Guinea the whorl is more common on the middle finger of both hands. The whorl is in far most populations the most dominant pattern on the ring finger, the thumb & and the index finger. This implicates that the most common similarity between the 12 populations is a high prevalance of the so-called 'universal distribution' for the 10 fingers: Right hand (thumb to pinky):__ whorl - whorl - ulnar loop - whorl - ulnar loop; Left hand (thumb to pinky):___ whorl - whorl - ulnar loop - whorl - ulnar loop. The populations from India, Israel, Iran & Korea display this 'universal distribution'. And the populations from Argentina & China display a related distribution - featured with only one differentiation on single finger aspect. Differentiations on two finger aspects are seen in the populations from New Guinea, Vietnam & Yemen. Differentiations on three finger aspects are seen the popuation from Nigeria. Finally, it is rather remarkable to notice that the 'white' populations show by far the largest variation compared to the 'universal distribution': - the population from the USA displays differentations on five aspects; - and the population from UK displays differentiations on six aspects. This indicates that any fingerprint combination in an individual can only be described as 'significant' when it shows at least seven differences with the 'universal distribution'. If there are six or less differences, the combination of the 10 fingerprints can very likely be described as likely falling within the 'common' variations. Finally, one should also consider the normal distribution of the four pattern types: radial loops are typically seen on the index finger only, while arches are typically seen on the index finger and/or middle finger only + in neighbour-combinations with one of these two fingers. Read more about: the role of fingerprints & dermatoglyphics in Multi-Perspective Palm Reading. 
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Nigeria (N=510) 1
USA (N=728) 2,3
England (N=6.300) 4-6
Iran (N=200) 7
Yemen (N=240) 8
Israel (N=253) 9
Korea (N=3.216) 10
Vietnam (N=135) 11
China (N=379) 12
Argentina (N=60) 13
India (N=255) 14-15
New Guinea (N=166) 16