AncestryDNA Announces New Regions and Increased Precision

As the global leader in family history and consumer genomics, Ancestry continuously develops new ways for you to learn about yourself through DNA and empowers you to unlock more discoveries about your family history. With evolving DNA science, Ancestry updates its AncestryDNA ethnicity estimate which connects people whose ancestors may have lived in the same place hundreds – or even a thousand years ago.

New Regions In Asia, Africa and Oceania

As our DNA network grows and science advances, we can deliver even more granular insights about your heritage and compelling new paths to learn about yourself using genetics. With updated ethnicity estimates, we can better connect you to people in different regions of the world through our reference panel, and suggest where your ancestors were most likely from. This means there may be some changes to your results. 

Our new regions include Central & Eastern China, Southwest China, Nepal & the Himalayan Foothills, Tibetan Peoples, Nigeria – East Central, Nilotic Peoples, Hawaii, and New Zealand Maori.

Improvements for Members Around the World

We’ve made notable improvements for our community members with family histories in the Americas, Oceania, Asia, and Europe. By including more people from more parts of the world in the AncestryDNA reference panel, we are able to increase the number of regions we can compare members to. We now offer over 84 global ethnicity regions and more than 1700 DNA communities for a total of 1830 regions.

Some may see a change in the percentages of their ethnicity estimates, reflecting the improved precision of results following this update. Others will see new or updated regions in their ethnicity estimates. Ancestry will continue to work to expand the diversity of our products to provide you with more precise ethnicity estimates.

What are ethnicity estimates?

Your AncestryDNA results include your ethnicity estimate, which tells you approximately how much of your DNA looks like the DNA of people from different regions around the world. For example, you may receive an ethnicity estimate of 50% France, 25% Japan, and 25% Germanic Europe.

Your ethnicity estimate includes regions based on two different scientific processes: the AncestryDNA reference panel and our Genetic Communities technology.

We know how important it is to represent the regions and populations around the world fairly and accurately – and we work with a diverse network of outside scholars and experts to develop and name our ethnicity regions.

Revisiting Your Results

We encourage you to look at your DNA story again to see if you have updates waiting to be explored and shared with your family and loved ones. As new people continue to join our AncestryDNA network and the science and technology behind your results improves, we will continue to provide updates for our members. It’s just one of the many wats Ancestry helps you learn more about your family, your past, and yourself.

A long list of AncestryDNA Regions can be found here. AncestryDNA tests your DNA for more than 1,800 global regions. As science improves, the number of regions we test for – and the countries covered in each region – may change.

The Regions include: Africa, America, Asia, Europe, Oceania, and West Africa. Each region is split into many different groups. AncestryDNA Ethnicity Updates are updated from time to time based on advances in DNA science and an increasing number of samples in AncestryDNA’s reference panel. With each new upstate, they continue to add new regions, making your results even more precise.

Related Articles At FamilyTree.com:

Ancestry Updated Four Communities

Ancestry Launches AncestryDNA Traits

AncestryDNA Introduces Genetic Communities