What is a reference panel?
A reference panel is a set of people whose DNA is typical of DNA from a certain place or group.
When you take an AncestryDNA test, we compare your DNA to the DNA in our reference panels to identify your ancestral origins. For example, to determine your ancestral regions, we find the reference panel DNA that's most similar to each segment of your DNA. Then, we assign your segments to the regions they resemble. So, if a piece of DNA is most similar to the reference panel DNA from Tonga, that segment will go into the "Tonga" bucket.
The reference panel for our ancestral regions has 185,063 DNA samples that divide the world into 146 overlapping regions and groups.
Reference panel makeup
Here's the breakdown of how many people are in each of the 146 regions:
| Region | # of samples |
|---|---|
| Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander | 54 |
| Acadia | 746 |
| Aegean Islands | 696 |
| Albania | 128 |
| Anatolia & the Caucasus | 2,000 |
| Arabian Peninsula | 1,260 |
| Ashkenazi Jews in Eastern Europe & Russia | 2,054 |
| Ashkenazi Jews in Central & Southeastern Europe | 2,291 |
| Azores | 1,501 |
| Basque | 253 |
| Bengal | 1,146 |
| Benin & Togo | 1,138 |
| Brittany, France | 85 |
| Burusho | 17 |
| Cameroon | 291 |
| Canary Islands | 239 |
| Central & Eastern China & Taiwan | 359 |
| Central & Southern Philippines | 2,000 |
| Central Italy | 4,023 |
| Central Nigeria | 700 |
| Central Scotland & Northern Ireland | 4,486 |
| Central West Africa | 497 |
| Cornwall | 1,070 |
| Crete | 184 |
| Cyprus | 1,881 |
| Dai | 60 |
| The Deccan & the Gulf of Mannar | 815 |
| Denmark | 895 |
| Devon & Somerset | 1,468 |
| East Midlands | 5,000 |
| Eastern Bantu Peoples | 121 |
| Eastern Czechia | 898 |
| Eastern European Roma | 468 |
| Egypt | 1,281 |
| Estonia & Latvia | 310 |
| Ethiopia & Eritrea | 89 |
| Finland | 1,294 |
| France | 116 |
| Germans in Russia | 716 |
| Guam | 85 |
| Gujarat | 998 |
| Gulf of Khambhat | 304 |
| Hawaii | 363 |
| Hebrides & Western Highlands, Scotland | 794 |
| Iceland | 295 |
| Indigenous Americas–Bolivia & Peru | 269 |
| Indigenous Americas—Central | 2,076 |
| Indigenous Americas—Chile | 539 |
| Indigenous Americas–Colombia & Venezuela | 3,117 |
| Indigenous Americas—Ecuador | 662 |
| Indigenous Americas–Mexico | 581 |
| Indigenous Americas–Canada & United States | 1,985 |
| Indigenous Americas—Panama & Costa Rica | 466 |
| Indigenous Americas–Yucatan Peninsula | 316 |
| Indigenous Arctic | 24 |
| Indigenous Cuba | 9,559 |
| Indigenous Eastern South America | 2,671 |
| Indigenous Haiti & Dominican Republic | 1,994 |
| Indigenous Puerto Rico | 3,601 |
| Indo-Gangetic Plain | 2,000 |
| Ionian Islands | 121 |
| Iran/Persia | 2,000 |
| Ivory Coast & Ghana | 182 |
| Japan | 136 |
| Khoisan, Aka & Mbuti Peoples | 41 |
| Korea | 2,000 |
| Levant | 2,000 |
| Lithuania | 3,977 |
| Lower Central Asia | 928 |
| Luzon | 2,000 |
| Madeira | 314 |
| Mainland Southeast Asia | 344 |
| Mali | 336 |
| Malta | 711 |
| Maritime Southeast Asia | 73 |
| Melanesia | 44 |
| Mongolia & Central Asia–North | 552 |
| Nepal & the Himalayan Foothills | 264 |
| The Netherlands | 1,774 |
| New Zealand Maori | 223 |
| Nigeria | 416 |
| Nigerian Woodlands | 309 |
| Nilotic Peoples | 163 |
| North Africa | 636 |
| North Central Europe | 2,407 |
| North East England | 3,240 |
| North-Central Nigeria | 536 |
| Northeastern Italy | 597 |
| Northeastern Poland | 3,815 |
| Northern & Central Greece | 224 |
| Northern & Central Philippines | 2,000 |
| Northern Asia | 29 |
| Northern China | 245 |
| Northern Iraq & Northern Iran | 1,092 |
| Northern Spain | 202 |
| Northern Wales & North West England | 5,000 |
| Northwestern Balkans | 1,807 |
| Northwestern Germany | 1,756 |
| Northwestern Italy | 568 |
| Norway | 5,000 |
| Portugal | 711 |
| Quebec | 5,000 |
| Romania | 482 |
| Russia | 905 |
| Samoa | 112 |
| Sardinia | 146 |
| Senegal | 124 |
| Sephardic Jews in Northern Africa | 362 |
| Sephardic Jews in the Eastern Mediterranean | 314 |
| Sicily | 3,223 |
| Slovakia | 3,761 |
| Slovenia | 707 |
| Somalia | 30 |
| Southeastern England & Northwestern Europe | 4,046 |
| Southern Bantu Peoples | 148 |
| Southern China | 278 |
| Southern Germanic Europe | 908 |
| Southern Greece | 679 |
| Southern India | 262 |
| Southern Italy | 4,770 |
| Southern Japanese Islands | 640 |
| Southern Poland | 3,822 |
| Southern Wales | 2,928 |
| Southwest India | 718 |
| Southwestern Balkans | 450 |
| Southwestern China | 275 |
| Spain | 191 |
| Sweden | 5,000 |
| Tibetan Peoples | 133 |
| Tonga | 166 |
| Twa | 125 |
| Vietnam | 2,000 |
| West Midlands | 4,083 |
| Western Balkans | 259 |
| Western Bantu Peoples | 184 |
| Western China | 237 |
| Western Himalayas & the Hindu Kush | 1,048 |
| Western Ukraine | 1,640 |
| Western Visayas | 181 |
| Yorubaland | 487 |
| Total | 185,063 |