mtDNA L in Europe and Spain

Here is a compilation from many different studies, for the frequencies of the maternal Sub-Saharan haplogroup mtDNA L,  for countries from all around  Europe. At the bottom, there is a compilation for the total of Spain. We'll see that spanish percentages are similar to other countries and/or regions of Europe. 

For some obscure reasons, on the Wikipedia articles  "mtDNA L in Europe", and  "African admixture in Europe" there is only  Iberia and Italy as european countries having mtDNA L, we will see here that this is not the case, there is in all corners of the continent. And I advise you if you dare to edit those articles,  you'll probably get blocked.


Slovaks              n = 2/207    0.97%      Malyarchuk et al.2006

Czechs              n = 1/279     0.36%      Malyarchuk et al., 2008

German-Danish  n = 1/161     0.62%      Richards et al. 1996
Germany            n = 1/335     0.30%      Achilli et al 2007
Germany            n = 4/333    1.20%      Pliss et al. 2005

Albania             n =  1/42      2.38%     Belledi et al. 2000
Bosnia             n=1/144        0.70%    Achilli et al 2007
Bulgaria           n=1/141        0.71%    Achilli et al 2007
Balkans          n= 1/556        0.18%    Regueiro et al. 2012 + King et al. 2011


Poland              n = 1/542     0.20%      Achilli et al 2007
Poland              n = 1/436     0.22%      Malyarchuk et al., 2002
Poles                n = 1/849     0.12%      Malyarchuk et al., 2008


British               n=1/100      1.00%      Piercy et al. 1993
England            n = 2/335     0.60%      Achilli et al 2007
England            n  = 1/142    0.70%     Helgason et al., 2001
Great Britain     n = 1/114     0.90 %     García et al. 2011
Scotland           n = 1/891     0.10 %     García et al. 2011


Finnish             n = 1/50       2.00%     Sajantila et al. 1995
Finland            n = 1/121     0.83%     Achilli et al 2007
Finns               n = 3/580     0.52%     Pliss et al. 2005


Norway          n = 1/74       1.40%     Passarino et al 2002
Norwegians    n = 2/397     0.50%      Pliss et al. 2005


Russia            n =  2/683     0.29%     Malyarchuk et al. 2008


France            n = 1/332      0.30%    Achilli et al 2007
France            n = 5/692      0.72%     Richards et al. 2007
France            n =  3/433     0.69%     García et al. 2011
France            n = 2/320      0.63%     Pliss et al. 2005
France                                 1.40%     Gónzalez et al. 2003


Switzerland      n=1/228        0.44%    Achilli et al 2007


Crete, Greece  n= 2/202       0.99%    Achilli et al 2007


Italy                n = 8/411      1.94%     Plaza et al. 2003,  Romano et al. 2003

NW Italy         n = 100        2.00%    Brisighelli et al. 2012

Sardinian         n = 2/69       2.90%     Di Rienzo and Wilson 1991
Sardinia          n =2/370       0.54%    Achilli et al 2007

Sicily               n= 1/106       0.94%     Cali et al. 2001
Sicily               n = 2/105      1.90%     Achilli et al 2007
Sicily              n = 3/465       0.65%    Plaza et al. 2003,  Romano et al. 2003
South Italy     n = 2/313        0.64%    Boattini et al. 2013 + Stefania Sarno et al. 2014

Tuscany          n= 6/322        1.86%    Achilli et al 2007
Marche (Italy) n=8/813         0.98%    Achilli et al 2007
Latium(Italy)    n=4/138        2.90%    Achilli et al 2007
Murlo (Italy)    n = 1/86       1.16%     Achilli et al 2007
Volterra (Italy) n =  3/114     2.63%    Achilli et al 2007
Casentino (Italy) n =  2/122  1.64%   Achilli et al 2007
Campania        n = 3/313      0.32%   Achilli et al 2007



Spain Total   n = 51 / 4.329     1.18%    From here :

Spain   n = 15/813   1.84%       Achilli et al 2007
Spain,  n =  0/686    0.00%       Rhouda 2006
Spain   n =  0/233    0.00%,      Lopez-Parra 2009
Spain   n =  1/251    0.40%       Plaza et al. 2003
Spain   n =  9/312    2.90%       Álvarez et al. 2007
Spain   n =  1/108    0.90%       Casas et al. 2006 *
Spain   n =  2/226    0.88%       Maca-Meyer et al. 2003
Spain   n = 15/742   2.02%      García et al. 2011
Spain (Basques)  n = 0/462      García et al. 2011
Spain, Zamora Province**  n =10/214    4.67%      Álvarez  et al. 2010
Spain, n = 8/496     1.61%       Pereira et al. 2005

Note that in the García et al. 2011 there is overlapping with other studies, that's why the total shown here  is not the same as the total you might get from the study.

- * Note that Casas et al. 2006 only considered L1-L2 sequences to be of sub-Saharan origin.
-** This study inlcudes only a sample from a small town of the province of Zamora, thus it is not very representative of the population of Spain, I prefer wider regions, anyways I have included them.
- Note about the subclade L3, some scholars don't consider it as Sub-Saharan (Maca-Meyer 2003 et al.) in her words :
""L3 is more related to Eurasian haplogroups than to the most divergent African clusters L1 and L2". L3 is the haplogroup from which all modern humans outside of Africa derive"

North-African marker E-M81 in Europe

Here is a list obtained from different studies, for the typical North-African y-dna subclade E-M81 (part of the marco haplogroup E) , for populations of Europe (outside of Iberia) :


West-Flanders : 1/110 = 0.9%   Larmuseau et al. 2013
Vlaams-Waals Brabant :  1/124 =  0.8%  Larmuseau et al. 2013
Belgium Total (all the study) :  2/773 = 0.3%  Larmuseau et al. 2013
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Germany   n= 1/345    0.29%    Rebala et al. 2012
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Haskovo, Bulgaria n = 1/41  2.4%  Karachanak 2013.
Total Bulgaria    n = 1/808  0.12%   Karachanak 2013.
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Greeks               n = 3/92    3.3%   Battaglia et al. 2008
Macedonian-Greeks  n=1/57   1.8%   Battaglia et al. 2008

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Croats               n = 1/89   1.1%   Battaglia et al. 2008
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North-Italy
North-Italians      n=1/67  1.5%   Cruciani 2004.
Lombard             n=1/18  5.6%   Scozzari 2001.
Venetian              n=20     0.0%   Scozzari 2001.
Ligurian               n=17     0.0%   Scozzari 2001.
Bologna               n =29    3.4%  Boattini et al. 2013           

Central-Italy
Central Italians    n=2/89     2.2%   Cruciani 2004.
Latium                n=1/66     1.5%   Scozzari 2001.
Toscana             n=123       0.8%    Boattini et al. 2013

South Italy/Sicily
Southern Italians   n=0/87    0.0%   Cruciani 2004.
Sicilians                 n=1/136   0.7%   Cruciani 2004.
Sicily                    n= 141     2.8%   Boattini et al. 2013
Cosenza              n=1/45      2.22%

Sardinia
Sardinians             n=1/367   0.3%   Cruciani 2004.
Sardinia                n=82        1.2%   Boattini et al. 2013
-------------------------- 

French               n=3/85    3.5%   Cruciani 2004.
French              n=3/73  4.1%   Scozzari 2001.
Auvergne           n=5/89  5.62   Cruciani 2004.
Île-de-France     (5/91)   5.49   Cruciani 2004.
Gascony             n=0/24  0.0%    Adams et al.
Béarn, Gascony   n=1/56  1.78%  Martínez-Cruz et al. 2012,
Bigorre, Gacony  n=1/44  2.72%  Martínez-Cruz et al. 2012

Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur	n=1/45 2.22%	Ramos-Luis et al. 2013.
Nord-Pas-de-Calais	n=3/70 4.29%	Ramos-Luis et al. 2013
Midi-Pyrénées	n=1/67 1.49%	Ramos-Luis et al. 2013.

Sub-Saharan haplogroup mtDNA L in Spain and Europe

In the study of Rhouda et al. (2006) in a sample of 686 spaniards, not a single individual with haplogroup mtDNA L was found. In the rest of Western Europe, the recent study of García et al. 2011 finds L up to Northern Germany and Denmark . We observe the following percentages  :

Hérault (Languedoc) 2.4 %
Rhône (Lyonnais) 4.4 %
Vendée and Vienne (Poitou) 0.8 %
Calvados and Seine-Maritime (Normandy) 1.8 %
Somme (Picardie) 1.3 %
France Miscellanea 0.6 %
Scotland 0.1 %
England 0.7 %
Great Britain 0.9 %
North-Germany and Denmark 0.7 %

R1b frequencies in Spain and Europe

The paper from Belareseque et al. 2010 gives us new percentages of R1b1b2 from different countries of Europe, as we can see in the table below. There is also a map of frequencies. As we can see again, Spain has among the highest percentages of Europe, especially the Spanish Basques, with 87.1 %, second most in Europe after Wales with 92.3 %.

Here are the levels for the regions of Spain :

• Spain Basques........................87.1 %
• Catalonia, Spain .....................81.3 %
• Andalucia East, Spain ............72.0 %
• Castilla La Mancha, Spain..... 72.0 %
• Galicia, Spain.........................58.0 %
• Andalucia West, Spain...........55.0 %

 Complete table with all countries :

Map of frequencies :