Click the large map on left to select a municipality and a region. The chosen municipality is highlighted and the chosen region is outlined in white. If a reference group is selected from the small map on top right, the large map shows the proportion of ancestry from that reference group across Finland.

The small map shows the location of the reference groups. By clicking a reference group, you can see the proportions of ancestry from that reference group across Finland on the large map. You can change the number of reference groups between 2, 6 and 10.

The Ancestry in Municipality tab shows the average genetic ancestry of the selected municipality with respect to the selected level of the reference groups (2, 6 or 10). The three-level tree structure shows the relationships between the three levels of the reference groups. Hover mouse over the bars to see the percentages.

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Changes in Genetic Ancestry within Finland during 1900s

Welcome to study the genetic structure and genetic ancestry within Finland during the 20th century. This website presents the results published in PLoS Genetics on March 4, 2021, and extends the earlier results of the fine-scale genetic structure in Finland published in October 2017 fine-scale genetic structure in Finland published in October 2017 . Genetic ancestry refers to the set of ancestors from whom an individual inherits genetic information. In theory, it could be identified based on matches between the DNA sequence of an individual and his/her ancestors. Unfortunately, this is typically not possible, as DNA samples of the ancestors are rarely available.

Luckily, genetic ancestry can be efficiently approximated with statistical methods that look for approximate matches to a set of well-chosen, geographically-defined reference genomes rather than to the exact ancestors. This is what we have done here for over 18,000 Finnish individuals. Our results show how the genetic ancestry at different regions of Finland has evolved in the 1900s and what the composition of genetic ancestry has been at each municipality during that period.

We remind that genetic ancestry does not determine individuals’ ethnicity, nationality or race that are social rather than genetic concepts. Note also that the terms ‘Finnish individuals’ or ‘the Finns’, as used in either social or legal context, are not defined through individual’s genetic ancestry. We discuss these issues and our results more in the application. Analyses were done at Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), University of Helsinki and the website at Department of Media Design, Aalto University Data from Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare.




Proceed to the application