I am excited to announce the long-awaited and highly anticipated release of the MyHeritgage new DNA ethnicity model: Ethnicity Estimate v2.5. The new model provides higher-resolution results compared to the previous model, v0.95, and nearly doubles the number of ethnicities identified by MyHeritage, from 42 to 79.

Here is the announcement from MyHeritage:

First, an honest confession: We know that many of our DNA users have been looking forward to this update for a long time. We initially released the intended model, v2, in June 2024 to a relatively small subset of thousands of users and ran surveys to gather feedback. The feedback was okay, but this wasn’t good enough for us; we wanted it to be great. Several flaws were raised in the survey. So, we decided not to roll out v2 to all users, and our team went back to work to improve the model further. We apologize for this delay, but we put quality above all else.

In that time, we developed a better algorithm, overcoming shortcomings in the v2 model, and released the new model, v2.5, to the same subset of users, plus thousands of others. Again, we surveyed these users, and this time, the feedback was significantly better. Users reported being happier with the new model compared to both the original ethnicity model (v0.95) that we’ve been using for years, and compared to v2.

Today we’re delighted to release Ethnicity Estimate v2.5 to everyone. New MyHeritage DNA users will receive Ethnicity Estimate v2.5 results from day one. As for existing MyHeritage DNA users who have received v0.95 ethnicity results before: we want everyone to be comfortable with their results, so we’re giving them the choice: Ethnicity Estimate v2.5 is opt-in, and is not automatically activated for our existing DNA users, so it will not override the previous ethnicity results. It’s up to you to decide if you want to see the new results, or if you prefer to stick with the original ones. If you decide to receive your updated results, you’ll be able to switch back and forth between the models at any time using a simple dropdown on the results page. Ethnicity Estimate v2.5 is free for all users.

Ethnicity Estimate v2.5 Overview

The Ethnicity Estimate v2.5 model is based on advanced new algorithms developed by the MyHeritage Science Team from the ground up following two years of extensive research and fine tuning. The new ethnicity breakdown provides better resolution; for example, individuals whose DNA results previously showed Scandinavian ethnicity will now receive results specifying what percentage of their ethnic makeup is Swedish, Norwegian, or Danish.

Ethnicity Estimate v2.5 Highlights

• Identifies 24 percentage-based European ethnicities.
• Quite a few of the new percentage-based ethnicities, such as Armenian, are unique to MyHeritage and not identified by other tests.
• Distinguishes between 15 different Jewish ethnicities, more than most other DNA tests on the market.

Learn more in our blog post about Ethnicity Estimate v2.5 and please see this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CffkVq74joo. Please share this news far and wide, and please share your new ethnicity results, too!

People love to see these videos with the spinning globe animation and they tend to go viral — this one for example has 846K likes and 57.1K shares. To download the video of your ethnicity results, open your Ethnicity Estimate on the MyHeritage website, and click the download button on the upper right corner of the map (from desktop) or tap the video icon and select “Download video” (from mobile web). You can find more detailed instructions here.