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77 overlapping regions
Both AncestryDNA and MyHeritage DNA provide high-level estimates of ancestral ethnicity, each based on their own algorithms and definitions. AncestryDNA divides the world into <anchor>77 overlapping regions</anchor> and groups; MyHeritage’s ethnicity is based on 42 ethnic groups. Ethnicity percentages continue to evolve as the companies gather more data and become better at recognizing genetic connections to places and peoples.
What is a reference panel?
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# What is a reference panel?

AncestryDNA uses two different approaches to figure out the regions in your DNA Story. In one we compare your DNA to the DNA from people in a reference panel. (The second uses Genetic Communities™. Read more about communities.)

# Using a Reference Panel

A reference panel is made up of people with a long family history in one place or as part of one group. To make it into the AncestryDNA reference panel, these folks need two things. First, they need a paper trail that proves their family history. Then, they must have their ethnicity confirmed at the DNA level. It is not easy to make it into the panel!

To tell your DNA story, we compare your DNA to the people in the reference panel and look for DNA you share. If some of your DNA is similar to the DNA of folks from Senegal, for example, we assign that part of your DNA to our Senegal region. And so on until we have looked at your whole DNA sample.

On your results list, regions based on the reference panel have a solid-circle icon that looks like this:



# Building a Reference Panel

The current AncestryDNA reference panel has 56,580 DNA samples that divide the world into 77 overlapping regions and groups.



Here is the breakdown of how many individuals are in each of the 77 regions:

RegionNumber of SamplesAboriginal & Torres Strait Islander53Aegean Islands366Anatolia & the Caucasus368Arabian Peninsula105The Balkans1,325Baltics245Basque98Bengal228Benin & Togo487Burusho23Cameroon, Congo & Western Bantu Peoples533Central Asia-South573Cyprus258Dai90Eastern Bantu Peoples167Eastern Europe & Russia1,454Eastern Polynesia & New Zealand Maori244Egypt252England & Northwestern Europe1,907Ethiopia & Eritrea98European Jewish447Finland401France3,099Germanic Europe3,261Greece & Albania482Guam133Indigenous Americas-Bolivia & Peru371Indigenous Americas-Central1,614Indigenous Americas-Chile467Indigenous Americas–Colombia & Venezuela3,162Indigenous Americas-Ecuador691Indigenous Americas-Mexico697Indigenous Americas-North2,000Indigenous Americas-Panama & Costa Rica475Indigenous Americas-Yucatan Peninsula302Indigenous Arctic36Indigenous Cuba3,408Indigenous Eastern South America2,671Indigenous Haiti & Dominican Republic2,840Indigenous Puerto Rico4,773Iran / Persia774Ireland794Ivory Coast & Ghana272Japan150Khoisan, Aka & Mbuti Peoples38Korea280Levant225Mali458Malta104Melanesia91Mongolia & Central Asia-North237Nigeria569Northern Africa287Northern Asia41Northern China340Northern India614Northern Italy1,179Northern Philippines210Norway790Portugal893Samoa96Sardinia75Scotland1,797Senegal168Somalia41Southeast Asia287Southern Bantu Peoples183Southern China479Southern India114Southern Italy1,365Southern Japanese Islands63Southern Philippines272Spain917Sweden & Denmark1,053Tonga121Vietnam235Wales764Total****56,580

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