Eastern European and Balkans genetic ethnicities per country according to MyHeritage

[Dunai]

I was browsing through various data that MyHeritage is providing and I found this rather interesting, how much various countries score for regional genetic ethnicities. In this thread I will focus on mostly the eastern part of Europe.

East European (mostly Slavic group):
1. Poland 92.3%
2. Slovakia 91.1%
3. Belarus 88.7%
4. Czechia 87.5%
5. Moldova 85%
6. Russia 83.1%
7. Slovenia 82.1%
8. Ukraine 81.3%
9. Hungary 77%
10. Croatia 63.5%
11. Lithuania 62.6%
12. Bosnia & Herzegowina 43.2%
13. Romania 41.9%
14. Serbia 41.6%
15. Bulgaria 39.9%
16. Latvia 38.4%
17. Estonia 36.8%
18. North Macedonia 14.8%
19. Greece 10.2%
20. Albania 0%

Balkan:
1. Serbia 95.7%
2. North Macedonia 95.1%
3. Bosnia & Herzegowina 92.6%
4. Croatia 92.3%
5. Slovenia 91.3%
6. Moldova 90%
7. Romania 89.4%
8. Slovakia 83.9%
9. Hungary 82.6%
10. Bulgaria 81.7%
11. Czechia 74.5%
12. Albania 72.7%
13. Ukraine 67.8%
14. Belarus 64.6%
15. Poland 63.5%
16. Russia 52.8%
17. Lithuania 40.4%
18. Greece 35.4%
19. Latvia 28.1%
20. Estonia 26.7%

Baltic (Balto-Slavic group):
1. Lithuania 95.5%
2. Latvia 91.6%
3. Belarus 90.6%
4. Estonia 84%
5. Russia 83.5%
6. Ukraine 70.2%
7. Poland 69.5%
8. Moldova 45%
9. Czechia 34%
10. Slovakia 33.1%
11. Slovenia 27.4%
12. Hungary 24.1%
13. Croatia 23.5%
14. Bosnia & Herzegowina 18.9%
15. Bulgaria 16%
16. Romania 14.3%
17. Serbia 13.7%
18. North Macedonia 6.6%
19. Greece 4.2%
20. Albania 1.8%

North and West European (mostly West Germanic group):
1. Czechia 42.8%
2. Hungary 42%
3. Slovenia 41%
4. Slovakia 32.1%
5. Croatia 24.4%
6. Romania 20.1%
7. Poland 15.3%
8. Bulgaria 14%
9. Greece 13.7%
9. Bosnia & Herzegowina 13.7%
11. Albania 12.7%
12. Serbia 12.4%
13. North Macedonia 11.5%
14. Moldova 10%
15. Estonia 7.8%
16. Ukraine 5.1%
17. Russia 3.8%
18. Lithuania 3.1%
18. Belarus 3.1%
20. Latvia 3%

Greek and South Italian:
1. Greece 89%
2. Albania 83.6%
3. North Macedonia 80.3%
4. Bulgaria 64.8%
5. Romania 47%
6. Serbia 26.7%
7. Bosnia & Herzegowina 21.1%
8. Moldova 20%
9. Croatia 14.3%
10. Slovenia 9.7%
11. Hungary 9.6%
12. Estonia 5.6%
13. Slovakia 4.7%
14. Czechia 4.2%
15. Latvia 3.8%
16. Russia 3.3%
17. Ukraine 3.2%
18. Lithuania 3%
19. Belarus 2.8%
20. Poland 1.4%

[Dunai]

Scandinavian (North Germanic group):
1. Czechia 37.6%
2. Estonia 32.6%
3. Slovenia 32.1%
4. Hungary 31.1%
5. Slovakia 29.4%
6. Poland 22.7%
7. Croatia 17.1%
8. Bosnia & Herzegowina 12.6%
9. Romania 11.5%
10. Moldova 10%
11. Serbia 9.3%
12. Bulgaria 8.4%
13. Russia 8%
14. Albania 7.3%
15. Ukraine 6.7%
16. Lithuania 6.3%
17. Latvia 5.5%
17. Greece 5.5%
19. Belarus 4.1%
20. North Macedonia 3.3%

Finnish:
1. Estonia 63.2%
2. Russia 32.5%
3. Ukraine 9.5%
4. Latvia 8.4%
5. Hungary 5.6%
6. Belarus 5.3%
6. Bosnia & Herzegowina 5.3%
8. Slovenia 4.8%
9. Slovakia 4.5%
9. Czechia 4.5%
9. Bulgaria 4.5%
12. Romania 4.4%
13. Croatia 4%
14. Poland 3.5%
15. Moldova 3.3%
16. Lithuania 3.1%
17. Serbia 2.5%
18. Albania 1.8%
19. North Macedonia 1.6%
20. Greece 1.5%

Italian:
1. Greece 33.8%
2. Albania 18.2%
3. Bulgaria 16.5%
4. Romania 16.2%
5. North Macedonia 14.8%
6. Hungary 12.1%
7. Serbia 7.5%
7. Croatia 7.5%
9. Slovenia 7.4%
10. Moldova 6.7%
11. Bosnia & Herzegowina 5.3%
12. Czechia 4.7%
13. Slovakia 4.4%
14. Ukraine 2.2%
15. Estonia 1.9%
16. Russia 1.4%
17. Poland 1.1%
17. Latvia 1.1%
19. Belarus 0%
19. Lithuania 0%

English:
1. Czechia 11.1%
2. Hungary 9.2%
3. Slovenia 8.4%
4. Slovakia 7.3%
4. Albania 7.3%
6. North Macedonia 4.9%
7. Croatia 4.8%
8. Poland 4.3%
9. Bosnia & Herzegowina 4.2%
10. Romania 3.5%
11. Bulgaria 3.1%
12. Greece 3%
12. Estonia 3%
14. Serbia 2.5%
15. Moldova 1.7%
16. Ukraine 1.2%
17. Russia 0%
17. Belarus 0%
17. Latvia 0%
17. Lithuania 0%

Iberian:
1. North Macedonia 14.8%
2. Albania 12.7%
3. Greece 11.6%
4. Romania 10.2%
5. Hungary 9.3%
6. Slovenia 7.6%
7. Croatia 7.5%
8. Bosnia & Herzegowina 6.3%
9. Czechia 5.3%
10. Bulgaria 5.1%
11. Serbia 5%
12. Slovakia 4.9%
13. Estonia 2.3%
14. Poland 1.8%
15. Ukraine 1.3%
16. Russia 1.1%
17. Latvia 0%
17. Belarus 0%
17. Lithuania 0%
17. Moldova 0%

[Dunai]

A few more groups that could be interesting for this region of Europe:

West Asian:
1. Greece 37.8%
2. Bulgaria 19.3%
3. Romania 15.1%
4. Moldova 8.3%
5. Russia 7.5%
6. Hungary 6.5%
7. Ukraine 5.3%
8. North Macedonia 4.9%
9. Bosnia & Herzegowina 4.2%
10. Albania 3.6%
11. Estonia 3.5%
12. Slovakia 2.9%
13. Czechia 2.7%
14. Serbia 2.5%
15. Latvia 2.4%
16. Croatia 2.2%
17. Belarus 2.2%
18. Lithuania 2.1%
19. Slovenia 1.8%
20. Poland 1.4%

Central Asian:
1. Russia 15%
2. Belarus 4.1%
3. Estonia 4%
4. Ukraine 3.7%
5. Moldova 3.3%
6. Lithuania 1.6%
7. Bulgaria 1.6%
8. Romania 1.3%
9. Latvia 1.1%
10. Czechia 1%
11. Greece 0%
11. Croatia 0%
11. Slovakia 0%
11. Poland 0%
11. Hungary 0%
11. Albania 0%
11. Serbia 0%
11. Croatia 0%
11. North Macedonia 0%
11. Bosnia & Herzegowina 0%
11. Slovenia

Ashkenazi Jewish:
1. Hungary 18.3%
2. Russia 14.2%
3. Romania 10.3%
4. Ukraine 9.8%
5. Bulgaria 9.1%
6. Albania 7.3%
7. Belarus 7.2%
8. Slovakia 7.1%
9. Moldova 6.6%
10. Latvia 6.2%
11. Czechia 5.6%
12. Croatia 5.5%
13. Poland 4.8%
14. Serbia 4.3%
15. Greece 4.2%
15. Estonia 4.2%
17. Lithuania 3.5%
18. Slovenia 2.2%
19. North Macedonia 1.6%
20. Bosnia & Herzegowina 0%

Middle Eastern:
1. Greece 18.5%
2. Bulgaria 7.4%
3. North Macedonia 4.9%
4. Ukraine 4.4%
5. Albania 3.6%
6. Romania 3.4%
7. Moldova 3.3%
8. Serbia 2.5%
9. Estonia 1.2%
10. Slovakia 1.1%
10. Hungary 1.1%
10. Bosnia & Herzegowina 1.1%
13. Czechia 1%
14. Russia 0%
14. Belarus 0%
14. Latvia 0%
14. Poland 0%
14. Slovenia 0%
14. Lithuania 0%

South Asian:
1. Romania 2.7%
2. Hungary 2.3%
3. Greece 1.7%
4. North Macedonia 1.6%
4. Bulgaria 1.6%
6. Slovakia 1.4%
7. Czechia 1.3%
8. Estonia 1%
9. Serbia 0%
9. Bosnia & Herzegowina 0%
9. Latvia 0%
9. Slovenia 0%
9. Croatia 0%
9. Russia 0%
9. Latvia 0%
9. Ukraine 0%
9. Lithuania 0%
9. Albania 0%

[Blondie]

So are hungarians more slavic than any balkan slavs?

[Dunai]

So are hungarians more slavic than any balkan slavs?

If we combine East European and Baltic groups then Hungarians are quite more Slavic than any Balkan Slavs with the exception of Slovenians, who score somewhat higher.

[Blondie]

If we combine East European and Baltic groups then Hungarians are quite more Slavic than any Balkan Slavs with the exception of Slovenians, who score somewhat higher.

That's lol

[Dunai]

What is very interesting about Hungarians is that right after Czechs they are the most Germanic population in Eastern Europe (if we combine Western and Northern European, Scandinavian and English), but also seem to have by far the largest Ashkenazi Jewish admixture. This is most probably because mixed Jewish-Hungarians tend to be from the middle and upper class in Hungary, and such genetic tests are mostly affordable to people with higher income, but also people of Jewish ancestry seem to be more curious than other groups of people to test themselves. Another very interesting thing is that in Hungary there seems to be almost no Central Asian admixture present.

[Cleitus]

So are hungarians more slavic than any balkan slavs?

This was more than obvious.

[TheMaestro]

Albanians least foreign admixture, proud of ya bois.

[Vrazijadivizija]

Its not new that Hungarians score more Slavic/Germanic mixture than Balkan countries except Slovenia..

[Cleitus]

Albanians least foreign admixture, proud of ya bois.

Albanian epic poetry intensifies.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlsXKxmlZAE

[RatCat]

Can you share the source link?

[vbnetkhio]

I was browsing through various data that MyHeritage is providing and I found this rather interesting, how much various countries score for regional genetic ethnicities. In this thread I will focus on mostly the eastern part of Europe.


it would be so much more useful if they published average scores by country instead of this.

[Dunai]

Can you share the source link?

https://www.myheritage.com/ethnicities

[Dunai]

it would be so much more useful if they published average scores by country instead of this.

Yes, it's a rather peculiar way of posting percentages. Basically, they score how many percent of individuals in a given country score a specific ethnic region. This works in my opinion still rather well for more homogenous countries like those in Eastern Europe, but isn't that helpful in more multiethnic countries, where obviously there will appear many pan-global ethnic regions with no historical and geographic ties to that specific country. Also in some countries, like for example in Hungary, certain minorities will be over-represented greatly, mostly because of class reasons. For example I bet the percentage of South Asian is much higher in Hungary than just 2%, given how Romas represent almost 10% of our population, but Hungarians of Roma ancestry are also by far the poorest class in Hungary.

[Blondie]

What is very interesting about Hungarians is that right after Czechs they are the most Germanic population in Eastern Europe (if we combine Western and Northern European, Scandinavian and English),

Yeah it was very obvious, but i thought czechs have a little bit more.


but also seem to have by far the largest Ashkenazi Jewish admixture. This is most probably because mixed Jewish-Hungarians tend to be from the middle and upper class in Hungary, and such genetic tests are mostly affordable to people with higher income, but also people of Jewish ancestry seem to be more curious than other groups of people to test themselves.

In Budapest there are tons of partly jewish people, most don't even know his distant jewish ancestry. The assimilation of jews has been finished during the 19. century and the begining of 20. century, and later being jewish was not good thing in Hungary. Most of the time, the baptized jewish parents didn't tell their kids that the family has jewish ancestry so many assimilated jew were hungarian ultra nationalist in the Horthy system, there were some epic fail because of it, for example the fanatic antisemitic Béla Imrédy who was party jewish and the journalists have found his ancestry. Or nowadays the another epic fail was Csanád Szegedi with similar story in the 2000' years. The assimilation of jews happened in urban areas and mostly in Budapest, the rural jews have been almost completely exterminated during the WW2, unlike jews from Budapest, so only hungarians from Budapest can have some jewish ancestry rural hungarians have not.


Another very interesting thing is that in Hungary there seems to be almost no Central Asian admixture present.

Be careful because Turul Karom will get heart attack lol

[Scandal]

So are hungarians more slavic than any balkan slavs?

Nope. Slavic is embedded in their Balkan category. Balkan on myheritage means paleo balkan + slavic mix. Slovenes, Croats and Bosnians are more Slavic than Hungarians in reality. Serbs are around as Slavic as Hungarians on avarage. Hungarians are more slavic than Bulgarians, Macedonians and probably montenegrins.

[Scandal]

Its not new that Hungarians score more Slavic/Germanic mixture than Balkan countries except Slovenia..

Croats have more slavic than do Hungarians.

[Scandal]

What is very interesting about Hungarians is that right after Czechs they are the most Germanic population in Eastern Europe (if we combine Western and Northern European, Scandinavian and English), but also seem to have by far the largest Ashkenazi Jewish admixture. This is most probably because mixed Jewish-Hungarians tend to be from the middle and upper class in Hungary, and such genetic tests are mostly affordable to people with higher income, but also people of Jewish ancestry seem to be more curious than other groups of people to test themselves. Another very interesting thing is that in Hungary there seems to be almost no Central Asian admixture present.

This data isn't about admixture it jsut shows that 40% of Hungarian who tested with myheritage scored some German. It can mean 40% of hungarians scored 10% German or NW Euro, in reality this admixture varies from person to person. It doesn't mean Hungarians are on avarage 40% Nw Euro. I think some people misinterpret this data (not necessarily you, Dunai)

[Scandal]

Yeah it was very obvious, but i thought czechs have a little bit more.


This study doesn't say much about how much German ancestry the avarage Czech person has. Based on the Gedmatch results I've seen the avarage Czech is 1/3 German + 2/3 Proto Slav, that's just an avarage though, some individuals will be almost pure slavic and others will score similar to East Germans.

What this study shows is that German admixture is equally widespread in Czechia and Hungary and after connecting this study to other studies we can conclude the Czechs who do score some NW Euro/German score more of it than the Hungarians who score some.

[Scandal]

This study doesn't say much about how much German ancestry the avarage Czech person has. Based on the Gedmatch results I've seen the avarage Czech is 1/3 German + 2/3 Proto Slav, that's just an avarage though, some individuals will be almost pure slavic and others will score similar to East Germans.

What this study shows is that German admixture is equally widespread in Czechia and Hungary and after connecting this study to other studies we can conclude the Czechs who do score some NW Euro/German score more of it than the Hungarians who score some.

The reality is something like this (maybe it will be more understandable this way): 40% of Hungarians score some NW Euro and from that 40% group they scored around 15% on avarage. 40% of Czechs scored some NW Euro too, but this 40% group scored more on avarage, probably something like 30%.

On k13 the Czech avarage if I remember correctly can be modeled as 2/3 Ukraine_Lviv + 1/3 Germany with low distance.
German admixture of avarage Hungarian is something like 15%.
Stearsolina's model from yesterday:

Hungarians, but difference is minor, much smaller than people think.

Distance: 0.0990% / 0.09895873
Target: Hungarian

55.9 Slavic
27.8 Vlach
15.4 Germanic
0.9 Turkic

I haven't seen a model that gives hungarians more than 20% German.
So Czechs have probably twice as much German admixture as Hungarians, but it is distributed among equal amount of people it looks like (40% in both ethnicities).

I have hard time explaining it in English, but I hope it's understandable what I meant.

[Ion Basescul]

I was browsing through various data that MyHeritage is providing and I found this rather interesting, how much various countries score for regional genetic ethnicities. In this thread I will focus on mostly the eastern part of Europe.


That's not how much they score, but the percentage of tested people from said country who receive at least 0.1% into one component.

[Jana]

This was more than obvious.

They aren't, it just people who don't know how to read data. Balkan on MyHeritage means south Slavic.

[Jana]

I haven't seen a model that gives hungarians more than 20% German.

Target: Hungarian_Transdanubia+Budapest
Distance: 0.1059% / 0.10589424

50.4 Slavic
25.3 Vlach
22.3 Germanic
2.0 Turkic

[Scandal]

Target: Hungarian_Transdanubia+Budapest
Distance: 0.1059% / 0.10589424

50.4 Slavic
25.3 Vlach
22.3 Germanic
2.0 Turkici meant hung. avarage not a region

[Scandal]

That's not how much they score, but the percentage of tested people from said country who receive at least 0.1% into one component.

Yes

i just didnt have a way with words

my explanation was a bit too complicated xD

[Terminator98]

Balkan category = around 1/2 Slavic and 1/2 Paleo Balkan. Also, as Universe mentioned, these numbers are not average % of NW/Balkan/Greek&Italian, etc. admixture in certain populations, just how many individuals got some percentage for that particular category (it can vary from 0.1% to 100%). Not to mention how MH categories are still horse shit (despite the fact that last ethnicity update was quite good, but they still have to improve their ethnicity groups).

[Scandal]

That's not how much they score, but the percentage of tested people from said country who receive at least 0.1% into one component.

To be fair I think he didn't mean that, but others misinterpreted the data and jumped into false conclusions.

[Ion Basescul]

Balkan category = around 1/2 Slavic and 1/2 Paleo Balkan. Also, as Universe mentioned, these numbers are not average % of NW/Balkan/Greek&Italian, etc. admixture in certain populations, just how many individuals got some percentage for that particular category (it can vary from 0.1% to 100%). Not to mention how MH categories are still horse shit (despite the fact that last ethnicity update was quite good, but they still have to improve their ethnicity groups).

Not really, the Paleo-Balkan component is Greek & South Italian, as strange as that sounds. It's not uncommon to find Ukrainians and Poles scoring over 50% Balkan.

[Luke35]

Balkan category = around 1/2 Slavic and 1/2 Paleo Balkan. Also, as Universe mentioned, these numbers are not average % of NW/Balkan/Greek&Italian, etc. admixture in certain populations, just how many individuals got some percentage for that particular category (it can vary from 0.1% to 100%). Not to mention how MH categories are still horse shit (despite the fact that last ethnicity update was quite good, but they still have to improve their ethnicity groups).

Yup, a very good additional point to keep in mind.

[Terminator98]

Not really, the Paleo-Balkan component is Greek & South Italian, as strange as that sounds. It's not uncommon to find Ukrainians and Poles scoring over 50% Balkan.

And what did I said? I said that "Balkan" category is mixed category which contains around 50% of Slavic and 50% of pre-Slavic genetics. It's hybrid category which is closest to Serbian average (50/50), that's why almost every Serb gets "Balkan" + something else (or, in some cases nothing else). About UA/POL, I know that some of them have certain "Vlach" admixture, but I've never seen anyone from these two countries with 50% of "Balkan" or over.

[Ion Basescul]

And what did I said? I said that "Balkan" category is mixed category which contains around 50% of Slavic and 50% of pre-Slavic genetics. It's hybrid category which is closest to Serbian average (50/50), that's why almost every Serb gets "Balkan" + something else (or, in some cases nothing else). About UA/POL, I know that some of them have certain "Vlach" admixture, but I've never seen anyone from these two countries with 50% of "Balkan" or over.

We misunderstood each other then. What I meant is that Balkan here is radically different than on 23andme, where both Albanians/Greeks and Serbs/Croats can score 100% of it. Here that doesn't happen.

[vbnetkhio]

Not really, the Paleo-Balkan component is Greek & South Italian, as strange as that sounds. It's not uncommon to find Ukrainians and Poles scoring over 50% Balkan.

some South Slavs get a combination of Greek & South Italian and East Euro, and some get 80%+ Balkan instead.
from what i've seen, those from Serbia,Bosnia and Montenegro tend to get the 80%+ Balkan, while other south Slavs get that Greek/East Euro combination instead, but i've seen very few results.

and anyways, all of this will change completely with the ethnicity update.

[noricum]

...and anyways, all of this will change completely with the ethnicity update.

Thanks, when is this update sceduled to come?

[vbnetkhio]

Thanks, when is this update sceduled to come?

I think it was supposed to come together with the genetic communities update, but they decided to release those earlier, and postpone the ethnicity update for later, so it should come soon, I guess.

[Scandal]

German admixture can show up as NW Euro and also as Scandinavian on myheritage tests. So since 30% of Hungarians score some Scandinavian, in reality more than 40% of Hungarian scored some German, but we don't know exactly how much of them did because the two overlaps: a person can score NW euro and Scandinavian at the same time. So this "study" is total BS in my eyes, because it doesn't answer anything and only creates further questions. Why couldn't they just create country avarages which display how much % Eastern European, Balkan, NW Euro etc the avarage person from a country scores (and those percentages should add up to 100 of course)
Yup, a very good additional point to keep in mind.
I scored "7.5% Welsh/Irish/Scottish" on myheritage... so yeah. On the other hand MH rawdata is better than 23andme afaik.

[Dunai]

German admixture can show up as NW Euro and also as Scandinavian on myheritage tests. So since 30% of Hungarians score some Scandinavian, in reality more than 40% of Hungarian scored some German, but we don't know exactly how much of them did because the two overlaps: a person can score NW euro and Scandinavian at the same time. So this "study" is total BS in my eyes, because it doesn't answer anything and only creates further questions. Why couldn't they just create country avarages which display how much % Eastern European, Balkan, NW Euro etc the avarage person from a country scores (and those percentages should add up to 100 of course)
I scored "7.5% Welsh/Irish/Scottish" on myheritage... so yeah. On the other hand MH rawdata is better than 23andme afaik.

Country average would already be a much bigger improvement to what they provide now, but ethnic averages would be even more helpful, since many countries have multiethnic populations, so the country average wouldn't really reflect in such cases the real ancestry of the historically majority population of that given country. In Hungary every citizen of our country is a Hungarian national, no matter race, language spoken or creed, but there is also a Hungarian ethnicity within it, which is different based on culture, language, historical ancestry and so on from Hungarians of German, Roma, Jewish, mixed or any other ancestry.