As the global leader in family history and consumer genomics, Ancestry® is continuously looking at innovative ways for you to learn about yourself through DNA and empower you to unlock more discoveries about your family history. With DNA science advancements, Ancestry has updated its AncestryDNA® ethnicity estimates, which breaks down the regions where your ancestors may have lived hundreds or even a thousand⁠ years ago.

New Regions in Asia and Europe

As our DNA network expands and science advances, we are able to provide even more detailed insights about your heritage and new family history discoveries using genetics. With this updated ethnicity estimate, 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 Western China, Maritime Southeast Asia, Western Philippines, and Eastern European Roma.

Improvements for Members Around the World

AncestryDNA has also made some significant improvements for members with long indigenous family histories in Hawaii and New Zealand. 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 88 global ethnicity regions and more than 2500 DNA communities.

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

Additionally, with the use of AncestryAI™, which is currently in beta testing, AncestryDNA can provide even more insights. AncestryAI™ can share additional context into your ethnicity regions, like what population movements affected a particular area or the most notable figures from the regions, providing rich details into your ancestral history.

What are ethnicity estimates?

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

Along with your ethnicity estimate, your results may also include DNA communities, which pinpoint specific locations your ancestors likely lived—sometimes down to the county or city.

You can also see how your ancestors moved from place to place over time, and find valuable records about their lives.

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 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 ways Ancestry helps you learn more about your family, your past, and what makes you, you