Ancestry category label distribution in the GWAS Catalog

Ancestry category label distribution in the GWAS Catalog.

Here we present an analysis of the ancestry data contained in the GWAS Catalog for studies published from 2005 - 2024.

An interactive dashboard monitoring the heterogeneity of participants across all GWAS available in the Catalog in real time, is available externally.

This figure summarizes the distribution of ancestry category labels as percentages up to 1st July 2024 (Data Release 08-07-2024). Panel (a), individuals (N=6,373,952,077); panel (b), publications (N= 6,916); panel (c), studies (N= 108,850); and panel (d) associations (N=624,819).

The most common ancestry label in all panels is European (blue). Multi-ancestry (when the breakdown of individuals per ancestry label is not provided) is light purple, and for the majority, this includes European individuals (light blue). At the level of individuals (a), the next most common label after European is Asian (bright green), which comprises 4%, with East Asian (dark green) accounting for the majority. Panels (b) and (c) show that there is a greater heterogeneity considering b) publications and c) GWA studies than considering the individuals in these publications and studies. Panel (d) demonstrates the contribution of curated associations per ancestry label. Note: Not all studies report significant associations, but metadata (and summary statistics where available) are made available in the Catalog for downstream analysis.

For more information on how labels are assigned, please refer to the Population descriptors page.