Your understanding of the world is about to take a leap forward once you look at this "consuanguinity map":
Consanguinity is a deeply rooted social trend among one-fifth of the world population mostly residing in the Middle East, West Asia and North Africa, as well as among emigrants from these communities now residing in North America, Europe and Australia. The mounting public awareness on prevention of congenital and genetic disorders in offspring is driving an increasing number of couples contemplating marriage and reproduction in highly consanguineous communities to seek counseling on consanguinity. Primary health care providers are faced with consanguineous couples demanding answers to their questions on the anticipated health risks to their offspring. Preconception and premarital counseling on consanguinity should be part of the training of health care providers particularly in highly consanguineous populations. Keywords: Consanguinity, Consanguineous marriages, Preconception counseling, Preconception consultation, Premarital counseling, Primary health care Introduction It is estimated that one billion of the current global population live in communities with a preference for consanguineous marriage (Bittles and Black 2010a; Modell and Darr 2002). Consanguineous marriage is traditional and respected in most communities of North Africa, Middle East and West Asia, where intra-familial unions collectively account for 20–50+% of all marriages (Bittles 2011; Hamamy et al. 2011; Tadmouri et al. 2009) [Fig. 1]. Fig. 1 Fig. 1 Global consanguinity rates Primary health care providers in communities with high consanguinity rates may be confronted by situations where they are asked to provide preconception counseling to consanguineous couples. In such countries and communities where cousin marriages are customary, many young couples nowadays present to health care providers seeking a scientifically sound answer to their questions including: “Will our children be physically or mentally abnormal?” “How can we minimize the risks for having affected children?”