Do Ashkenazi Jews have a higher incidence of baldness than other ethnicities?
Ashkenazi Jews are known to have have certain genetic issues but genetic balding is likely universal all around. In fact Ashkenazi Jews are probably more diverse than other ethnicity peoples (Ref: Science Daily August 27, 2010). Certain genetic conditions such as Tay-Sachs disease prevalent in the Ashkenazi Jewish population may be attributable to a phenomenon known as population bottle neck or genetic drift thousands of years ago. I am not sure how this may affect the balding gene and I am not certain if the percentage variation in male pattern balding has been studied in the various geographic Jewish populations. In general, Genetic Male Pattern Balding affects roughly 50% of the male population and I am not certain if the gene has been identified or linked to a specific chromosome (If it has, it has not been studied or compared with respect to specific ethnicity or race). In general, about 7 to 8 percent of the men go on to be completely bald (Norwood 7). The rest fit into the the many patterns outlined by the Norwood Classification (II-V)