europe

I read if Catalonia were to proclaim independence unilaterally in the next few days without the approbation of Madrid, Catalonia would not automatically become a member of the European Union. The logic is that if it splits from a member state of the EU, it would need to re-apply for EU...

In 2013 Mastercard release a report called Cashless Journey, analysing the percentage of cashless transactions as a share of the total value of consumer payments in 33 countries. Here is the ranking. Belgium : 93% France : 92% Canada : 90% United Kingdom : 89% Sweden : 89% Australia : 86%...

I played around with nMonte and Global 10. Managed to get some pretty small distances in the end. Though, we need Bronze Age and Iron Age genomes from Southeastern Europe for a better accuracy. Background (results with commercial calculators): 23andme FTDNA MyHeritage DNA Land Global...

Is there anyone until now who has proposed that the steppe people were indo-europeanized by the Cucuteni-trypilian culture before they entered Europe? That would sure explain why the balkans doesn't have as much steppe input as northern europe, and why the balkans seem to have older branches of...

I have been in contact with David Nicholson, the managing director of Living DNA, and he informed me that they are planning to launch regional projects for every European country (and potentially also beyond Europe) in the coming months. Their aim is to map the world's DNA in order to fight...

I have been making socio-economic maps for several years. Here is the latest addition. I have calculated the average unemployment rates for the 12-year period 2004-2015. Unemployment rates change all the time and it is only useful to compare the economic health of countries based on data...

I have hypothesised for several years that the wave of Neolithic farmers who came from the southern Levant through North Africa brought a quite different set of haplogroups and autosomal admixture than the Anatolian farmers that colonised the Balkans and Central Europe. There is ample...

I realised that many people did not have a clear view of the percentage of European ancestry outside Europe. Goga wrongly believed that Armenians had much higher European ancestry than Indian Brahmins, when in fact Brahmins have about three times more European admixture (15% against 5%) if we...

Should Armenia be considered Middle East? Poll! Armenia has historic ties to the Persian, Roman, and Greek empires. Armenia has cultural similarities to other Caucasus nations, such as Georgians and Azeris. Armenians resemble other Caucasus people, such as Georgians and Azeris. Armenia is a...

I finally found some time to make the map of Yamna admixture using the data from Eurogenes Steppe K10. There was no data for some countries, so I had to guess based on neighbouring countries or isolated samples reported on forums. That is the case for Portugal, Ireland, Wales, the Netherlands...

I had not made any new archaeological maps for 6 years. Yet there are still periods that weren't covered, including that particularly interesting one that saw the emergence of the Khvalynsk culture, which may well have been the first PIE culture in the Steppe, before Sredny Stog and Yamna. That...

Denmark Czech Republic Austria Cyprus Italy Ireland Netherlands Hungary France Greece Germany

Denmark Czech Republic Austria Cyprus Italy Ireland Netherlands Hungary France Greece

Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. All these 4 countries speak German as their first and official language. they are bordering each other. They once used to be one country, yet they are divided. Always thought about that..

The original Celts came from central Europe. However modern central Europeans (Swiss and Austrians) don't look phenotypically Celtic in the modern interpretation (Irish, welsh). Were the original Celts closer in appearance and genes to the Irish (pale, freckles, red hair) or closer to the Swiss...

I have added a new map of Economic Freedom in my Social & Economic Maps of Europe. This map is based on the Index of Economic Freedom (2016) created by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal. It is shocking, though not entirely surprising to see how poorly Latin countries perform...

Here is a map showing the allele frequency of HLA-DR14. The maximum frequencies are observed in Kosovo (8.5%), Albania (7.5%), South Italy (7.5%), Georgia (7.5%), Romania (7%), Macedonia (6.7%), Greece (6.5% but 4% in Crete), Armenia (6.5%). DR14 is virtually absent from the Sardinian, Basque...

Here is a map showing the allele frequency of HLA-DR15. The maximum frequencies are observed in the Pasiegos of Cantabria in northern Spain (32%), the Chuvash of the Volga region (19.5%), Ireland (18.5%), Denmark (18.5%), Brittany (18%), Orkney (18%), Norway (15.5%) and Sweden (15.5%). DR15...

Here is a map showing the allele frequency of HLA-DR3. The maximum frequencies are observed in Sardinia (56%), the Basque country (19.5%), Ireland (18%), Morocco (16.5%), Tunisia (16.5%), Libya (15.5%), Saudi Arabia (15.5%), Belgium (15.5%), Wales (15%), Algeria (15%), England/Scotland (14.5%)...

Here is a map showing the allele frequency of HLA-DR16. The maximum frequencies are observed in the United Emirates (18%), Bulgaria (17.5%), Macedonia (15.5%), Greece (13.5%), Albania (12.5%), Serbia (11%), Croatia (10.5%) and Sardinia (10.5%). It is completely absent from the Saami, Breton...