How Much Viking DNA Do You Carry? Sources and Corrections

No test can isolate Viking DNA. The largest Viking Age genome study of its time could only set a ceiling on the Viking-era Danish share of England, no more than 6 per cent, and it found the bigger flow of ancestry running the other way, into Scandinavia. Here is every claim in our post, with its source.

Section numbers match the number at the top of each slide. If you find an error, tell us, with a citation, and we will correct it here.

Slide by slide

01. The study

In 2020 Nature published what was then the largest study of Viking Age genomes: 442 ancient people, sequenced at a median depth of about 1X and compared with 3,855 people alive today. The 442 run from the Bronze Age to about 1600, so they are not 442 Vikings. About 397 are from the Viking period.

Source: A. Margaryan, D. J. Lawson, M. Sikora, F. Racimo et al., "Population genomics of the Viking world", Nature 585 (2020): 390-396, doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2688-8; the period counts are ours, from Supplementary Table 1.

02. England, no more than 6 per cent

The paper's sentence is narrow: the Viking Age contribution "does not exceed 6% in England". That is a ceiling, not an estimate; it is England, not the United Kingdom; and it is a share of ancestry, not a share of people.

Source: Margaryan et al. 2020 (accepted manuscript), section on the genetic legacy of the Vikings in present-day populations, and Supplementary Note 11.

03. Why it is only a ceiling

Angles and Saxons crossed from Jutland and northern Germany centuries before the Danelaw, from much the same corner of the continent. Their ancestry and Viking Age Danish ancestry are very hard to separate. The People of the British Isles project reached the same wall from the other side: it saw no clear genetic signal of the Danish settlement of a large part of England, while its "Anglo-Saxon" component may well contain one.

Source: S. Leslie et al., "The fine-scale genetic structure of the British population", Nature 519 (2015): 309-314; J. Kershaw and E. C. Røyrvik, "The 'People of the British Isles' project and Viking settlement in England", Antiquity 90 (2016): 1670-1680.

04. The Norwegian-like trace

Norwegian-like ancestry is easier to pick out, because it is less like Anglo-Saxon ancestry: about 4 per cent in England, Scotland and Ireland, and 3 per cent in Wales. In Poland a small Scandinavian component reaches up to 5 per cent.

Source: Margaryan et al. 2020, Supplementary Note 11 for the 4 and 3 per cent; the Poland figure is in the paper itself.

05. The bigger flow went north

Norwegians today carry between 12 and 25 per cent ancestry most like people of Britain and Ireland, and Swedes about 10 per cent. Press releases at the time called that "10 per cent Viking DNA in Sweden", which turns the finding upside down. It is British and Irish-like ancestry in Scandinavians, not the other way round.

Source: Margaryan et al. 2020, same section. The press wording appeared in the University of Cambridge and University of Bristol releases of 16 September 2020.

06. Scandinavia was already taking people in

A 2025 study of early medieval genomes found ancestry related to central European groups arriving in Scandinavia by about 800, which early Iron Age individuals there did not carry: 25 of 53 sampled Viking Age individuals in Denmark had it, and 20 of 62 in Sweden, almost all in the south. Most Viking Age Scandinavian ancestry was still local.

Source: L. Speidel, M. Silva, T. Booth, B. Raffield et al., "High-resolution genomic history of early medieval Europe", Nature 637 (2025): 118-126, open access; the local-ancestry point is Margaryan et al. 2020.

07. Four brothers at Salme

Around 750, decades before the raid on Lindisfarne, a crew was buried in two ships at Salme, Estonia. Isotopes point to central Sweden. Kinship analysis of 34 of the dead found four brothers, buried beside one another in the same ship, and a third-degree relative of one of them.

Source: Margaryan et al. 2020, and Supplementary Note 4. We do not say they died on the same day: that line comes from a press release, and the radiocarbon dates for these men differ.

08. A relative on each shore

In a mass grave of killed men at St John's College, Oxford, one man had a second-degree relative, which means a half-brother, uncle, nephew, grandfather or grandson, buried at Galgedil on Funen in Denmark. The Oxford grave is often linked to the St Brice's Day massacre of 1002, but the radiocarbon evidence in the paper's own supplement is inconclusive.

Source: Margaryan et al. 2020, Supplementary Notes 1 and 4 (individuals VK144 and VK279).

The question slide

Go back about 33 generations and the places in your family tree outnumber the people who were alive in Europe. That is genealogy, and it means anyone with European roots descends from the people of the Viking Age who left descendants, raiders and raided alike. Genetics is stricter: most of those ancestors left you no DNA at all, and an ancestry percentage is a comparison with reference groups, mostly people alive now.

Source: P. Ralph and G. Coop, "The geography of recent genetic ancestry across Europe", PLoS Biology 11 (2013): e1001555; C. D. Royal et al., "Inferring genetic ancestry", American Journal of Human Genetics 86 (2010): 661-673.

What we do not claim

• That the UK is 6 per cent Viking, or that 6 per cent of people have Viking DNA. The figure is a ceiling on ancestry, for England.
• That Sweden is 10 per cent Viking. That 10 per cent is British and Irish-like ancestry in Swedes.
• That Scots and Irish are up to 16 per cent Viking. That number comes from the 2019 preprint and a permissive upper bound, not from an estimate.
• That a consumer test can tell you how Viking you are. The study could not separate Danish from Anglo-Saxon ancestry in England with 442 ancient genomes.

Limits worth knowing

Labels such as "Danish-like" and "Norwegian-like" are statistical clusters measured against reference samples, and the authors call their affinities inexact and indicative. The ancient individuals were chosen from Viking-culture burials, so they over-represent people buried that way. Later work disagrees with parts of the 2020 picture, especially the southern European and British signals inside Viking Age Scandinavia.

Corrections

None yet. Dated corrections will be listed here.

Keep exploring

• Real Old Norse names, not invented ones
• Norse place names: sources and corrections
• The Viking world map: real sites, 793 to 1066
• Personalised blades, laser-engraved with a name you choose

Frequently asked questions

How much Viking DNA do people in England have?

The largest study of Viking Age genomes published at the time could only set a ceiling: Viking Age Danes contributed no more than about 6 per cent of the ancestry of present-day England. It is a ceiling rather than an estimate because Danish and Anglo-Saxon ancestry are very hard to tell apart.

Can a DNA test tell me if I am part Viking?

No. A test compares you with reference groups, mostly people alive today, and the study itself notes there was no common word for Scandinavian identity at the time. The 2020 study could not separate Viking Age Danish ancestry from Anglo-Saxon ancestry in England even with 442 ancient genomes.

Do Scandinavians carry British and Irish ancestry?

Yes, and more than the reverse. Norwegians today carry 12 to 25 per cent ancestry most like people of Britain and Ireland, and Swedes about 10 per cent.

Am I descended from Vikings?

If your roots are European, almost certainly, along with everyone else alive in the Viking Age who left descendants. That is a fact about family trees, not about your DNA: most of those ancestors passed nothing measurable to you.