DNA Databases
AncestryDNA currently has the largest consumer DNA database in the world. This means that it has more samples in its database than any competitor. The table below shows the size of the databases of all the realistic competitors for this claim, based on quoted numbers on their owned websites.
| Brand | Database size |
| MyHeritageDNA | 1.05 million |
| 23&Me | 2 million |
| National Geographic | 834,322 |
| AncestryDNA | 6 million |
Record Counts
Ancestry has the world’s largest online collection of family history records. We conduct regular audits of our competitors and the family history market to ensure this claim is and remains accurate. Our true competitors are currently at these numbers:
| Company | Global record count |
| Ancestry.com | 21,283,142,429 |
| FamilySearch.org | 4,673,310,603 |
| MyHeritage.com | 9,016,954,782 |
| FindmyPast.com | 3,291,743,454 |
Definitions of a record
Our definition of a record is an individual entry on a document. For example, a single page in the birth index lists the birth events for multiple people. Each entry in this list is counted as an individual record.
The minimum requirement for a record to be counted is that it the information is transcribed and saved in the online database. Transcribed records without a corresponding scanned image are counted. Those that just have a scanned image and no transcription are not. This ensures the count is fair to all competitors, as several (eg FamilySearch) have a high number of transcriptions without scanned images.
Several of our records are also available through our competitors, and the reverse is also true. However, we have the largest collection of unique records, hence we have the largest collection overall.
Worldwide database
Our collection does not include records from every single country in the world, and as such we do not make that claim. However, it does include records from several countries, and in total these records amount to by some distance the largest online collection anywhere in the world.
Ancestry is a consumer database. However, there are no other online databases, consumer or otherwise, that are larger than ours. Both the US and UK governments work with providers such as us to digitise their records, such as censuses, birth records etc. We can be extremely confident that there are no private collections larger than ours – and even if there were, these would not be defined as ‘online’ as they would not be available through the internet.