2025 Ancestral Origins Update Coming Soon

Update 9 Oct, 2025: The 2025 AncestryDNA update is here. Find out more >

Coming Soon: More Precise Regions and New Macro-Regions in your 2025 AncestryDNA Results

Here at Ancestry, we're thrilled to announce something exciting on the horizon: the Ancestral Origins 2025 Update!

But this isn't just another annual update; it's a monumental leap forward in how we help you understand your genetic heritage. We’re adding more new regions than we have ever released. Having been a part of five previous updates, I can tell you, this one is truly special.

So what key factors make this update so amazing?

More Detail Added for European Ancestral Regions

This year’s update focuses on adding and updating European regions, delivering even more granularity than ever before. But that doesn’t mean your heritage has to exclusively go back to Europe to see these improvements. People of African American, Central and South American, North African, and Middle Eastern descent are all likely to see the impact of these updated regions.

Plus, every AncestryDNA user gets their DNA re-analyzed during the update, and that can always change the exact regions and percentages you see in your results. So even if you aren’t getting one of these new regions, our updates mean you could still see your results change. Percentages for certain regions might go up or down, or some low-percentage regions might even disappear, which is totally normal.

Your DNA Is the Same, It's Our Science That’s Always Improving

This update reflects a big shift in how we think about your DNA, and is a major step forward in helping you understand your heritage. What this means is that there are more regions, and these regions are more specific.

You might be wondering, "Will my results look different?" The answer is a resounding YES! Many of our customers are going to see some incredible changes in their results. But let's be clear: your DNA itself hasn't changed. What has changed, and is constantly improving, is our cutting-edge science and technology.

An Expanded DNA Reference Panel

What science is powering this impressive update? We've supercharged how we build our reference panel—the massive database of DNA samples we compare your DNA to. Using a new combination of genetic and genealogical data, we’ve expanded our reference panel to over 185,000 samples! 

This colossal increase allows us to take many of those broader existing regions in Europe, and break them down into new, incredibly detailed ones. For example, we used to have one whole region for Ireland. Now, we can give more precise areas within Ireland, like Connacht, to help you gain more insights into your family’s roots. Imagine getting an even clearer, more precise picture of your origins!