What does the Classical Index and Percentile Mean?

The Classical Index represents the amount of DNA that you share with classical populations.

To find this figure, we first calculate the genetic similarities between your DNA and the DNA obtained from known ‘Classical’ samples. 

This allows us to estimate how much DNA you share with each of our groups. 

We then compare your value to those of all other Living DNA users. This yields your Classical Index score. 

The Classical Index score allows you to see where your result falls in comparison to the whole range of Classical Indexes across the Living DNA user base. 

• Index: This represents the degree of genetic resemblance between your DNA and Ancient Egyptians. It’s derived from calculating the genetic similarities between your DNA and samples from Egyptian and non-Egyptian sources. The resulting distance value is then converted into the Index, usually ranging from 1 to 100. So a higher Egyptian Index indicates a greater similarity to the Ancient Egyptian group.
• Percentile: This contextualises the Index by comparing it to the distribution of indexes among all Living DNA users. For instance, if your Egyptian Index is 80, your DNA is more similar to Egyptian DNA than 80% of all Living DNA users. This percentile score offers insight into where your genetic similarity stands relative to the broader user base.

In summary, while the Index directly measures genetic similarity to specific ancient groups (in this case the Egyptian), the Percentile  provides context by showing where your result falls within the distribution of Egyptian Indexes across all Living DNA users.