How many people have had their DNA tested?

[E19463]

Please excuse my English, especially with it's grammar I do have issues sometimes as I am from Germany.

Are there any statistics showing how high the percentage of the global population performed the DNA test is? Or for any country?
I am asking because I am trying to imagine how high the probability is to discover a person that is either your unknown child or your parent.
I am thinking at the Latin proverb: "Pater semper incertus est." and that makes me reasoning about this.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pater_semper_incertus_est

[keigh]

I can't say what the numbers are for DNA test takers from Germany, But I do know that FTDNA does do testing in Europe. Ancestry.com does a similar test, but is currently only marketing in the U.S.A..

If you suspect someone is related to you that can be proven if both parties take the DNA test. If you suspect that your father isn't your father, but he isn't available to test, you and your siblings can do a test to see if all you are full siblings. Someone who shares only one parent will stand out in the comparison results.

However, if you don't have anyone to test against, results from a blind test can be difficult to analyze, especially if the matches you do get are distant cousins. I know that I have matches at a 5th cousin or higher level, who only have 2 people on their tree. I can't help them gather information to add to family trees. Their name doesn't mean anything to me as they are just too far away genetically.

I don't know if this helps, but good luck on your search.

[E19463]

...
If you suspect someone is related to you ....

Well, I guess if you go back far enough everybody is related to everybody somehow.

...
If you suspect that your father isn't your father...

I have no doubt about my father being my father or my son being my son but this is the fact ==> http://www.ljmu.ac.uk/NewsCentre/67019.htm saying that "More than one in 25 dads could unknowingly be raising another man’s child", and none of them has any doubt, just like me.
The article also says "...increasing use of genetic testing for diagnosis, treatment, and identification is likely to boost the rates of paternal discrepancy"

I know that men who are semen donors are more likely to find an unknown child. But how likely this chance is depends largely on the number of participants for this DNA testings. Aren't there any numbers showing the percentage of people taking this DNA test?

[muso]

Not as many as I am sure most of us would like. According to this wikipedia article, http://www.isogg.org/wiki/Autosomal_...mparison_chart, over 1.5 million. Keep in mind many have tested with multiple companies (as I have done). I would think less than 1 million, all told. Hopefully, as time goes by, more will find it worth their while. Competition is good, as it should drive down prices. The more affordable the test is, the more who may find it worth the investment.

[E19463]

Not as many as I am sure most of us would like. According to this wikipedia article, http://www.isogg.org/wiki/Autosomal_...mparison_chart, over 1.5 million...

Thank you for the link. I agree that the number of participants are still negligible compared to the global population of 7 billion. And I share your hope that one day all people will know their DNA: No more unknown relationships - what a wonderful world!

[Germanica]

I can't say what the numbers are for DNA test takers from Germany, But I do know that FTDNA does do testing in Europe. Ancestry.com does a similar test, but is currently only marketing in the U.S.A..

AncestryDNA is available in the UK now, but of course that doesn't help someone in Germany.

[PDHOTLEN]

One can also use their common sense to get an idea. Circumstantial evidence and the mother's answers or lies, etc., can reinforce suspicions. If the eyes are darker than both official parents, that is a clue. If the hair is darker than both official parents (as young adults), that is another clue. Nose and ear shape can be added to those; and so on and so forth. In the end, though, all us humans are one big family in a big, cold, uncaring (Darwinian survival of the fittest) universe.

[E19463]

One can also use their common sense...

Or use DNA testing.
I think DNA testing should be obligate post partum and so should be circumcision (sometimes called a surgical vaccination) but this is just my opinion and we live in a democracy.
Nonetheless there is right now a discussion going on in Germany about the limits of parental rights (to decline vaccination) as we have now a dead baby due to measles in Berlin: https://www.google.de/search?hl=en&g....1.jRwQMo4_Poo
Some things do not affect only you but others, too.

[dna]

[----] Some things do not affect only you but others, too.

An example from America is that one's freedom does not extend to shouting FIRE in a crowded movie theatre. What would be a German equivalent?

Measles outbreaks started some months ago in the US and Canada. As far as I am aware, the discussion is very different though.

W. (Mr.)

P.S.
DNA testing coverage, both percentage wise and in absolute numbers, varies greatly between the countries.

FTDNA might be creating such estimates for themselves. However, if releasing such aggregate numbers is OK with their privacy policy, it is surely not a good business idea.

[E19463]

Measles outbreaks started some months ago in the US and Canada. As far as I am aware, the discussion is very different though.
...

Interesting. Where there death babies, too?

[E19463]

Interesting. Where there death babies, too?

I mean dead babies.

Here is the BBC report about the discussion to make vaccination mandatory:http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31585047

The Guardian also reports about this ongoing discussion: http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...ons-child-dies

[E19463]

I mean dead babies.

Here is the BBC report about the discussion to make vaccination mandatory:http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31585047

The Guardian also reports about this ongoing discussion: http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...ons-child-dies

But back to topic, I read a newspaper article about a semen donor who wanted to find his children by using DNA genealogy testing. Well, after what I read here his chances seems to be almost zero as there are far too few people participating in this kind of testing.

PS: It is this article ==> http://www.zeit.de/2014/46/samenspender-spenderkinder and now I think it is made-up.

[dna]

But back to topic, I read a newspaper article about a semen donor who wanted to find his children by using DNA genealogy testing. Well, after what I read here his chances seems to be almost zero as there are far too few people participating in this kind of testing.

The article could have been inspired by a real case of half-siblings unexpectedly finding themselves. But it also looks like a followup to this one http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18825244.200

PS: It is this article ==> http://www.zeit.de/2014/46/samenspender-spenderkinder and now I think it is made-up.

If it were real, shouldn't they state, names changed to protect the innocent (or whatever standard statement in German is)?

W. (Mr.)

[E19463]

...
If it were real, shouldn't they state, names changed to protect the innocent (or whatever standard statement in German is)?

W. (Mr.)

I now think this German made-up story is rather an advertisement for FTDNA.

[E19463]

I have to correct myself, the mentioned article in the newspaper "Zeit" is not about a father searching for his children but about a son searching (and finding) his father through DNA genealogy. I still think it is an advertisment for FTDNAs FF.
At the same time there was another article in "Der Spiegel" about a photographer taking pictures from German "Mischlinge" and this article was the one that brought my attention to DNA genealogy: http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesells...-a-999076.html
I do not think it is a mere coincidence that both articles were published at about the same time in two of the most renown German newspapers but I rather think that FTDNA had a PR action going on.
Maybe this is also a reason for the surge in demand and the subsequent delay in processing our DNA as many people complain in the subforum: http://forums.familytreedna.com/forumdisplay.php?f=237