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

[cbowley]

Here's some additional data.

Country	4C or closer	Total matches	Relationship
UK	390	19,395	mother
UK	391	26,654	sister
UK	284	15,629	brother
UK	265	15,338	me
UK	615	21,952	4C1R
USA	595	11,344	half 2C
South Africa	292	17,759	predicted half 2C who turned out not to be
South Africa	231	12,534	father of above
UK	586	17,123	relationship yet to be established
UK	470	12,645	relationship yet to be established
UK	414	19,278	mother of previous two
New Zealand	491	14,066	relationship yet to be established
New Zealand	502	14,331	relationship yet to be established
New Zealand	451	15,974	mother of previous two

The USA case is interesting. His grandfather emigrated from the UK, ending up in New York and married an Italian. Their son married a Greek. Consequently, he has a large number of high cM, close relatives but they are all relatively recent immigrants to the USA so the total number of matches is low. It would be even lower but his 3GGPs were Irish. They moved to England in the wake of the famine but it looks like many of their relatives headed in a different direction and populated Connecticut.

The 4C1R has lots of relatives that emigrated from the UK, right back to the Mayflower. Plenty in the USA know of such ancestors but not many in the UK would be aware of such a relationship.

My sister's higher numbers compared to my brother and me seem partly down to her match strengths not being so badly affected by TIMBER.

[brigidmac]

Ok this technophobe has found correct button
& Hope you understood typos in previous post
Which I can no longer modify

4th cousin match or closer 

American Jewish 2c has an incredible number57,670

Mother 1 Jewish gparent 1 Welsh 1.488
Me  half Scottish  . Based in England 421
My Cousin UK based but 1 Jewish ggf 1063
Paternal aunt Scots :464

Unrelated UK; 313
& 460

[AngelaR]

The other annoying thing about the Ancestry declared numbers is that the figure given for "4th cousins or closer" actually, on inspection, appears to consist mainly of matches in the category of "4th to 6th cousin" when listed. 

Not sure what you mean on this - the number I get on the main DNA page (i.e. if I click DNA at the top) matches what I then see if I click the Shared DNA filter at the top and then select the '4th cousin or closer' button?

Sorry about the delay in replying to this, @melba_schmelba.

What I meant by my comment was that, if I click the '4th cousin or closer' button, as you say, I do indeed end up with my second and third cousins in there BUT, the majority of the matches listed  (i.e. all the ones below those) are described in their individual headings as "4th to 6th cousins" and I know from the few of these that I can actually identify, that many of them are actually 5th cousins.

I am puzzled as to why, when selecting 4th cousins or closer, the list clearly includes a majority who are certainly more distant than 4th cousin, and even declared by Ancestry to be so...