Wednesday, July 24, 2013

DNA Testing Companies Database Sizes: How many people in their databases?

The Genographic project has a counter on their homepage 

I've have been curious about the total number of people who have tested with the major genealogy testing companies. It's difficult to find these numbers at most of the company sites. The numbers are important because they will affect the number of matches you'll get, and your predicted Haplogroup. Here are some of the numbers thrown out by the major testing companies:

  1. Family Tree DNA has sold 300,000 kits as of Saturday July 20, 2013
  2. As of May 2013 23 and Me sold about a 250,000 tests (their goal is 1 million by year's end)
  3. The National Genographic Project has 600,000 DNA samples as of June 2012
  4. DNA Tribes makes reference to comparing your results with 560,0000 people but doesn't say whether all these people purchased kits through their company?
  5. Haven't found any numbers for Ancestry.com
After researching all of these DNA companies I've come to the conclusion that the The Genographic Project offers the best most accurate DNA testing, which tests Y, MT, and Autosomal DNA for $200. You get much more for less money testing here. You get your deep clade at no additional cost. Deep Clade testing helps narrow down your ancestral ethnicity. Since the Genographic Project is affiliated with Family Tree DNA you can transfer your results to Family Tree DNA for free. With the size of the database and their advanced testing the Genographic project is the most reliable test available. 
I wish all of the testing companies would provide the numbers of people who have taken each of the tests they offer, so we can get a better idea of the size of the comparison pool. 

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