Survey of number of DNA matches of different kits by country - a stark contrast!

[melba_schmelba]

Being manager or having access to several Ancestry DNA kits (10+) spread around the world, I had vaguely noticed a possible difference in numbers of matches previously, but I thought I would try to quantify this systemically, and the results are quite stark , and may explain some frustrations for people in making use of a test. I have access to 8 UK kits, 2 Australia, 3 Canada and 1 USA, but I am including one of the Canadians as USA since they have an American mother. So these are the average number of matches for all these kits by country, down to 30cM

USA (2 kits ranging from 262 to 267) = AVERAGE 265 MATCHES

UK (8 kits ranging from 50 to 99) = AVERAGE 76 MATCHES

Canada (2 kits both 64) = AVERAGE 64 MATCHES

Australia (2 kits ranging from 42 to 58) = AVERAGE 50 MATCHES

I think we can probably say that genealogy and tracing of origins, and taking of DNA tests to assist that, is by some margin most popular in the USA. I certainly wouldn't want to put people off getting a test outside the US, but what I think it tells us non US genealogists (or US based but with mostly recent immigrant ancestry), is that if we want to make full use of a DNA test, we have to make that extra effort in seeking out relatives on different sides of our families and persuade them to get a test (purchasing it ourselves if necessary ideally on a sale) to try and work what side the more distant matches may lie on, that may ultimately prove useful to solve some of our genealogical mysteries.

[JosephusSapon]

(Nonsensical reply cancelled).

Is there any way of deleting a post?

[melba_schmelba]

(Nonsensical reply cancelled).

Is there any way of deleting a post?

Possibly contact a mod? Apologies if my post was confusing . I think it confirms what most of us have suspected which is that DNA testing is most popular in America, but by what degree it is more popular and thus the greater number of average matches a person has to work with might be a surprise to some people (it was to me).
  As I said, us non Americans, or recently arrived Americans can try to ameliorate our disadvantage in this way by seeking out, say, relatives from the branches of all our four grandparents and getting them tests. You will then be able to correctly place more of your matches using your shared matches with these known relatives, and also, if you share your DNA with each other, you can then look at shared matches below 20cM. Obviously, if you were adopted or have close unknown parts of your tree, that is not an option, but what you can do is put your DNA on as many sites as possible i.e. FTDNA, MyHeritage, GEDMATCH.

[JosephusSapon]

No apology necessary: the nonsensical reply referred to was a reply from me to your original post.  After I posted it I realised it had a logical flaw and tried to delete it, but found I could only modify it, to what eventually appeared.  (My reply wondered whether the numbers you saw were simply a reflection of each country's population).

[Petros]

I was wondering what you are defining as matches.

Using Ancestry from the UK my wife and I respectively have 268 and 387 4th cousin matches

[melba_schmelba]

No apology necessary: the nonsensical reply referred to was a reply from me to your original post.  After I posted it I realised it had a logical flaw and tried to delete it, but found I could only modify it, to what eventually appeared.  (My reply wondered whether the numbers you saw were simply a reflection of each country's population).

Oh I see, yes, I originally thought that too, big country, more relatives, but that doesn't really follow . It is probably true that certain types of families were large, rural farming families, Mormons etc., but in my own family in Victorian times many families had 12 children+. As far as I know neither of my American samples have Mormon ancestry.

[melba_schmelba]

I was wondering what you are defining as matches.

Using Ancestry from the UK my wife and I respectively have 268 and 387 4th cousin matches

Oh, I forgot about the 4th cousin or closer figure, that would have been a much easier way to compare  . I originally manually counted down to 30cM (inclusive) for all the matches. All the matches had long standing ancestry of at least 120 years in those respective countries for most of their lines. Redoing my original survey using the 4th cousin or closer amounts, this is what I get

[4th cousin or closer]

USA (2 kits ranging from 1438 to 1884) = AVERAGE 1661 MATCHES

UK (8 kits ranging from 255 to 479) = AVERAGE 390 MATCHES

Canada (2 kits ranging from 267 to 346) = AVERAGE 307 MATCHES

Australia (2 kits ranging from 248 to 363) = AVERAGE 306 MATCHES

[Gadget]

Just a minor niggle, having used statistics for most of my working life..

 Giving an average from just 2  instances is not really necessary. I also think that 8 is a little small.  Maybe just the range would suffice.

Gadget

[melba_schmelba]

Just a minor niggle, having used statistics for most of my working life..

 Giving an average from just 2  instances is not really necessary. I also think that 8 is a little small.  Maybe just the range would suffice.

Gadget

I know it isn't perfect Gadget , but it's the only figures I have to go on. If anyone has some more data to add (the 4th cousin or closer figure would be easiest) please anyone feel free to post and I'll try to periodically update the averages.