Swedish population structure

Via Dienekes, The Genetic Structure of the Swedish Population:
An analysis of genetic differentiation (based on pairwise Fst) indicated that the population of Sweden's southernmost counties are genetically closer to the HapMap CEU samples of Northern European ancestry than to the populations of Sweden's northernmost counties. [. . .] We have shown that genetic differences within a single country may be substantial, even when viewed on a European scale.
The paper is in PLoS ONE (i.e., it's open access). More:

The first principal component showed the presence of a north-south genetic gradient that was mainly driven by each northern county being different from other counties. [. . .]

The second principal component did not display a constant gradient across Sweden. The county with the lowest mean was Dalarna, with samples in the north-western parts of this county contributing with particularly low values. These patterns may be linked to Finnish or Norwegian ancestry, although the component most probably encompasses other signals arising from factors such as isolation and drift in the more remote parts of Dalarna county. A large wave of migration did take place from parts of today's Finland to Dalarna, Värmland and Gävleborg counties during the 16th and 17th centuries, with some settlers moving further west to Norway. The migrants, known as the “Forest Finns”, have today become fully assimilated into Norwegian and Swedish society with almost none speaking Finnish. As we conservatively removed samples that had Finnish ancestry to reduce the effect of ethnic Finns on the Swedish population stratification, we removed samples that had a substantial Finnish contribution. Indeed, the samples that had the most extreme values with respect to principal component 2 fell close to our cutoff used to define Finnish ancestry (Figure S10). What we see may therefore be the remnants of early Finnish migrations to Sweden. It could be that even after the removal of samples with Finnish ancestry, Finnish influx leaves its mark, consistent with a long history of Finnish migration to Sweden coupled with a high degree of admixture. However, when we applied the component to a set of Norwegian samples, they too had negative component values with a small number of samples being clear outliers in the negative direction (Figure S6). It is therefore possible that a portion of the component predicts Norwegian ancestry, or isolation and drift in the border areas that has left its mark in both populations, or a combination of these factors.

Population pairwise Fst values

The observed genetic differences between the southern national areas and counties are similar to what has been seen in the UK, when comparing southern England to Scotland, and the genetic differences between the southern national areas and North Middle Sweden (the approximate geographical center of the country) are similar to what has been observed between the UK and Ireland [9]. They are much smaller than the ones observed between regions in Finland where the Fst has been shown to be about an order of magnitude larger than what we observed among the southern Swedish national areas [7]. The genetic differences between Upper Norrland, the northernmost national area, and the southern and middle national areas were much larger than the genetic distances we observed between the southern national areas and the HapMap CEU founders, highlighting the extent of the distances. The genetic differences observed between the southern national areas and the northernmost one were larger than what has previously been observed between Swedes and Danes, and Swedes and the Dutch [5]. This puts the observed intra-Sweden genetic differentiation into perspective, showing that the genetic differences between the southern and northern parts of Sweden are of larger magnitude than those between a general sample of Swedes and samples from some other European countries and Americans of Northern European ancestry. [. . .]

The observed patterns of homozygosity further reinforce the picture of a genetic divide between the southern and northern parts of Sweden. While the differences in the number of extended homozygous segments were mostly small and non-significant for the southern national areas, the counties corresponding to the three northernmost national areas had a larger number of extended homozygous regions, suggestive of an increase in autozygosity. The northern national areas are much more sparsely populated than the southern with vast geographical distances between towns and villages, a fact that may have contributed to the observed loss of heterozygosity. [. . .]

The main south-north pattern detected in the principal component analysis may be the amalgamation of many separate factors. Immigration of continental Europeans, and Britons to the southern parts of Sweden may be one such factor, together with isolation and consecutive allelic drift and admixture with the indigenous Sami people in northern Sweden. [. . .]

The picture of the Swedish genetic structure presented here can only be considered as a historical snapshot. Immigration and movements around Sweden can alter the picture we have described considerably within the span of only a few generations.
Within country population movement creates genetic diversity and breaks up existing structures. Immigration from other countries leads to new stratification of a vastly complex nature. With increased movements, homozygosity, due to a high degree of kinship with geographically local possible partners, may swiftly decrease.

43 comments:

  1. Sweden's southernmost counties are genetically closer to the HapMap CEU samples of Northern European ancestry than to the populations of Sweden's northernmost counties. [. . .]

    Well, this seems in line with the history of the expansion of the Germanic peoples (der Volkswanderung), whom in Scandinavia genetically left their largest footprint proportionately more in the southern-tier of the peninsula rather than the northern part, which was more populated by the Uralic sub-race of the Lapps (or the "Sami" as the pc crowd likes to refer to them as).

    I suppose the Indo-European Germanics stayed predominantly in Scandinavia's south due to the milder, gulf-stream influenced climate - and of course being closer to continental Europe and other Germanic peoples, especially for culture, commerce and trade.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "[Dalarna] appears to differ markedly from other counties, possibly due to this county having more individuals with remote Finnish or Norwegian ancestry than other counties."

    Why do they suggest Finnish when the dalarnans seem to veer from southern Swedes in a direction that is very different from northern/finnish Swedes? Also, the N. Swedes seem to be just as far from the dalarnans as they are from the S. Swedes.

    Someone else suggested that the dalarnans are more closely related to the older population of central/southern Sweden (which was separate from Finnish areas) while the southern Swedes were more effected by the agriculturists coming from the south. Is there evidence to support this? Basically that the dalarnans are more native and the southern Swedes or more recent oncomers.

    ReplyDelete
  3. New genetic study on intelligence. Substantial heritability, lots of genetic differences of individually small effect.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It seems like when it comes to racial iq differences and genes people will need to see the actual mechanism at play to be convinced that the connection exists.

    As far as I know it can already be inferred that racial iq differences are partly genetic, even without finding the actual genes involved, but that still doesn't convince people...

    ReplyDelete
  5. I don't mean to come of as obnoxious but I had a question for some white nationalists.

    What do you guys think of E. Asians and the fact that they have a slightly higher average iq?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Okay, so we all know that southern Swedes are the Whitest of all White people. Where does this leave the northern Swedes then? Where do they fit into the Whiteness hierarchy? Whiter than Norway and Denmark? Northern Germans? Finns? Dutch? English?

    ReplyDelete
  7. TGGP,

    Thanks. Of course that result is not unexpected but I'd like to read the paper before I comment and don't have access at the moment.

    nuadha,

    Northern Swedes are not Finnish, though they may have some Saami admixture. There was, on the other hand, known Finnish migration to central Sweden, but that probably can't fully explain the difference between central and southern Swedes. Isolation and small population sizes are probably a major factor. Differing levels of descent from different early migration waves could conceivably play a role as well, but I don't have any strong opinion on that possibility at the moment.

    "What do you guys think of E. Asians and the fact that they have a slightly higher average iq?"

    What relevance do you think it has?

    ReplyDelete
  8. "What do you guys think of E. Asians and the fact that they have a slightly higher average iq?"

    Asians, like women, cluster more around the mean. They have a slighter higher average IQ, however White males have more extremely high IQs, which is more important. A thousand people with 110 IQ can't do the work of one person with 160 IQ.

    More than a slighter higher average IQ what makes Asians excel is their work ethic, collectivism, and willingness to be exploited for slave labor by their own people. Something Whites won't tolerate.

    ReplyDelete
  9. "What relevance do you think it has?"

    I figure that if you guys just want an improved society with less crime, higher gdp, more stable families, and other pro social benefits of a higher iq societies, then you'd be fine with whites mixing with Asians. Even if it meant the dissolution of the white race.

    If you guys are not ok with that and have a priority of preserving the white race then I'd have to ask why. Is it for sentimental reasons? Is it that you think whites are superior in some way other than iq and thus deserve something? Is it about gaining power?

    In any case do you guys have extra respect for the east Asians, compared to other non whites, for having such high iqs?

    Basically what is your end goal and where do east Asians fit in.

    Ps: I realize your not all the same but answer how you want.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Yes, I forget that the iq issue is a bit more complicated. But my questions are still pretty much the same.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I figure that if you guys just want an improved society with less crime, higher gdp, more stable families, and other pro social benefits of a higher iq societies, then you'd be fine with whites mixing with Asians. Even if it meant the dissolution of the white race.

    Societies created by Northern Europeans and their descendants are the best societies in the world, that's why so many people including Asians immigrate there.

    You shouldn't kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.

    ReplyDelete
  12. where do east Asians fit in.

    In East Asia.

    ReplyDelete
  13. "Asians, like women, cluster more around the mean. "

    I've often heard this argument made with regard to East Asians and Ashkenazi Jews but I've never seen any studies to confirm it. All the studies I've seen relating to IQ differences with these groups only ever report their mean, not their variance/standard deviation. Does anyone have any legitimate/reliable and preferably recent studies which do?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Kid gets his hand crushed in China

    Pretty hard to watch: 8 year old kid is beaten several times because he bumped into a old lady without paying attention.

    Next time when Chinese, Africans or what ever steal in western countries, we should crush their hand too. :)
    Does anyone have more background details?

    http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1a7_1311109738

    ReplyDelete
  15. Chinese Racist Violence
    Posted on July 20, 2011 by thrasymachus33308

    One of the stranger things about the “human biodiversity crowd” is its Asiaphilia. These people like to point out while blacks are lower than white people, Asians are higher. They do this partly out of a desire to insulate themselves from charges of racism, but partly because they have a superficial view of Asian culture. They see a certain order and discipline and regard this as civilization.

    Civilization is far more, of course. European civilization functions on among other things a lubricant of goodwill, kindness and charity. The weak are protected and helped.

    In this rather unpleasant video, a small European boy has apparently become lost in a Chinese city. I believe what happened was showing fear and confusion, and rather than drawing a few concerned, helpful people to try to help him find his parents, his fearful behavior triggered an aggressive reaction, just as it would with blacks or some Latinos.

    http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1a7_1311109738

    We can look forward to being dominated by these people if we don’t get our act together.

    http://deconstructingleftism.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/chinese-racist-violence/

    ReplyDelete
  16. I've often heard this argument made with regard to East Asians and Ashkenazi Jews but I've never seen any studies to confirm it. All the studies I've seen relating to IQ differences with these groups only ever report their mean, not their variance/standard deviation. Does anyone have any legitimate/reliable and preferably recent studies which do?

    Apart from racialist blogs repeating the claim, the only actual place where I've seen this proposed as a serious intellectual argument is on the "La Griffe du Lion" where it is proposed and then dismissed as an argument based on the known data.

    I've even seen some racialist bloggers erroneously cite this as the actual proof when the said article actually dismisses it.

    I'm not aware of any actual scholarly studies that show this.

    --

    Kid gets his hand crushed in China

    Pretty hard to watch: 8 year old kid is beaten several times because he bumped into a old lady without paying attention.


    --
    Civilization is far more, of course. European civilization functions on among other things a lubricant of goodwill, kindness and charity. The weak are protected and helped.

    I agree that the Chinese lack the real sense of altruism that permeates N. Euro socities.

    But there is a difference between simple kindness and the nauseating liberalism that permeates the comment you copied. The Chinese can be criticized for a lot of things, but one thing that they definitely can be praised for is their total rejection of equality and their refusal to make excuses for bad behavior.

    In this rather unpleasant video, a small European boy has apparently become lost in a Chinese city.

    Not a European boy. Definitely has Caucasian traits, yes, but he's likely a member of one of China's many ethnic minorities.

    There is likely more context to this. First time I heard about this, I was told that the boy was actually a thief. I don't know what the actual story is, but chances are there is more to this than just simple racism.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I agree that the Chinese lack the real sense of altruism that permeates N. Euro socities.

    But there is a difference between simple kindness and the nauseating liberalism that permeates the comment you copied.


    That's not simply a lack of altruism, that's sadistic abuse of a minor. Similar to how they abuse animals.

    Racism is not the issue, severely injuring a child is.

    There is no context where that is appropriate behavior.

    That you are unable to grasp this says a lot about you.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Racism is not the issue, severely injuring a child is.

    There is no context where that is appropriate behavior.

    That you are unable to grasp this says a lot about you.


    Nowhere in my comment did I condone the treatment of that child. I merely pointed out that it is unlikely that this behavior was unprovoked as your comment wanted us to believe nor was it racism against Europeans as you stated. And your comment did in fact use racist in the pejorative sense that leftists use - if racism isn't the issue then don't bring it up.

    Would you give a pass to the racial lynch mobs of the Jim Crow era American south?

    ReplyDelete
  19. nuadha,

    I'm not in much of a proselytizing mood at the moment. If you want a debate, try asking Svigor.

    "If you guys are not ok with that and have a priority of preserving the white race then I'd have to ask why."

    Do you have any idea how insane that question would have sounded 100 years ago? Or today, outside the West. Do you imagine the Chinese would look placidly toward being replaced in their own country?

    No justification is required for survival. Innumerable justifications can be had.

    I've yet to see a good justification for suicide.

    ReplyDelete
  20. "If you want a debate, try asking Svigor"

    Sorry about that, I didn't want a debate. I only asked because I know little to nothing about your motives here.

    I asked why you want to preserve the white race because there can be multiple reasons.

    I have a good fondness for my heritage and think its even healthy. I like belonging to something. I like the fact that humans are different genetically and culturally, instead of one big mesh.

    I am fine with inter racial marriages but I just wish that some areas would be free of it to preserve our heritage. For example, I don't care about mixing in America but I think it sucks that there's so much immigration in Europe. It's just going to abruptly destroy this long history... And if people truly wanted to cerebrare diversity they would keep some separation!

    And its not just race. I don't like the fact that the swiss are taking in a lot of people from the balkins.

    Basically, I'm mostly sentimental about it. I also must say that the Germans (and swiss) are smart. If they mix with everyone around them... They won't be as smart which isn't good for all of us. (That doesn't mean we need any violence.)

    ReplyDelete
  21. I merely pointed out that it is unlikely that this behavior was unprovoked as your comment wanted us to believe nor was it racism against Europeans as you stated.

    That wasn't me.

    Would you give a pass to the racial lynch mobs of the Jim Crow era American south?

    Two completely different scenarios. Jim Crow was necessary to protect White Southerners.

    Looks like they need some Jim Crow in London.

    ReplyDelete
  22. I've yet to see a good justification for suicide.

    Undignified, groveling, self-humiliating suicide at that.

    ReplyDelete
  23. I have a good fondness for my heritage and think its even healthy.

    So you're obviously non-White. Why use the name princenuadha? He was a blond Nordic elf warrior, a radical traditionalist that fought for his people. Tragically betrayed by his own family that sided with a miscegenist demon.

    ReplyDelete
  24. "So you're obviously non-White."

    I'm white.

    ReplyDelete
  25. I don't believe you, you phrase your questions as someone from outside the White group. Are you a quasi-White hybrid?

    ReplyDelete
  26. I sound like an outsider because I am. I'm not a white nationalist and I was asking what their about. Its not part of everyday language (especially for whites) to talk about protecting their proud white race.

    BTW, I consider self white but maybe I'm not... All the heritage I know of is white apart from supposedly having 1/128 Cherokee : 0

    ReplyDelete
  27. I am fine with inter racial marriages but I just wish that some areas would be free of it to preserve our heritage.

    You need to work on your contradictions.

    Race does not stop being valuable because of your geographic location.

    ReplyDelete
  28. " Race does not stop being valuable because of your geographic location."

    My idea was like creating a reserve to protect nature but still live in the city myself.

    ReplyDelete
  29. My idea was like creating a reserve to protect nature but still live in the city myself.

    Unfortunately it doesn't realistically work that way with flesh-n-blood human beings.

    Additionally, why the heck should White Christian Americans, especially the Anglo-Protestant Northern European Founding Stock, be put on reservations in the country and civiliazation they founded and created in the first place?!? Kinda backwards if you ask me.

    ReplyDelete
  30. I want Europe to drastically limit immigration to preserve heritage.

    I would view the preservation of colonies redundant and unfair...

    ReplyDelete
  31. In my analogy Europe is the reservation that preserves a heritage.

    (Comment above was mine too)

    ReplyDelete
  32. I figure that if you guys just want an improved society with less crime, higher gdp, more stable families, and other pro social benefits of a higher iq societies, then you'd be fine with whites mixing with Asians. Even if it meant the dissolution of the white race.

    You figure right. I don't just want to improve society along a bunch of socioeconomic indicators. There's more to life than IQ and SES and credentialism.

    Btw, I don't assert the narrower IQ distribution of yellows, because I see no evidence for it.

    If you guys are not ok with that and have a priority of preserving the white race then I'd have to ask why. Is it for sentimental reasons? Is it that you think whites are superior in some way other than iq and thus deserve something? Is it about gaining power?

    It's about preserving my race. Duh. Nobody gives a shit if the Snowy Egret is inferior to some other species or sub-species or race of bird. They just want to save it because it's worth saving. Meanwhile, the Snowy Egret doesn't just want to preserve his race, but see it flourish.

    This is not complicated.

    I do have a couple of other "objective" concerns, though.

    1. Whites created the modern world. Not "superior" (as if life is a roleplaying game and yellow's high score on IQ tests are what's important) yellows and sepias. Only an idiot breeds the geese that lay the golden eggs with the geese with high test scores.

    2. Aesthetics. My people are beautiful. If we mix with others, we'll become less so, and our distinct beauty will pass from the Earth. For no good reason.

    If you want an explanation for #1, my suggestion is "IQ + Testosterone." I don't know if it's actually testosterone (probably not), but there's some "X" factor at play here that, combined with IQ, allows whites to outdistance yellows. Yellows have slightly higher mean IQ, but they're so conformist and limpwristed that they have to get a consensus before they take a dump. Meanwhile, the slightly "inferior" white guy is out innovating, consensus be damned. You kinda have to be blind, or an IQ fetishist, or a jealous non-white "cognitive elite" to miss this.

    In any case do you guys have extra respect for the east Asians, compared to other non whites, for having such high iqs?

    No, but I do have extra respect for yellows for the results they get with those IQs; i.e., the yellow IQ + X factor (other behavioral genetic traits) = success, much more so than for sepias, browns, etc.

    Basically what is your end goal and where do east Asians fit in.

    Yellows fit in where they are now - in yellow homelands, and whatever they can carve out for themselves from non-white territories.

    To recap, I don't care if little green men with IQs of 2000 show up tomorrow, I don't want my kids to be 1/2 little green men any more than I want them to be 1/2 yellow, brown, sepia, red, black, etc.

    And more to the point, I'm never going to put up with a situation where I'm not allowed to object to being forced into panmixia and "integration." No more than Jews will let themselves be swamped by Chinese, mestizos, or any other non-terrorist-Arab-but-not-Jewish-either group.

    Not ever.

    P.S., then there's the issue of reciprocity, something that seems as alien to whites as little green men; why should we let yellows into our country when they don't let whites into theirs? Same goes for mestizos, who are nowhere near as open with their economies as we are with ours. Why should we give more than we get?

    ReplyDelete
  33. 2. Aesthetics. My people are beautiful. If we mix with others, we'll become less so, and our distinct beauty will pass from the Earth. For no good reason.

    This is sooooo obviously true.

    North-western Europeans are, on average, the most beautiful (and handsome) people in the world, and unchecked mixing with other races and ethnys would very likely alter the unique phenotype of the Nordish peoples -- due to the highly recessive nature of Nordish genes and the Nordish genotype.

    As a Nordish Southern European, I am truly understanding and appreciative of these obvious factual truths.

    ReplyDelete
  34. ^^

    2. Aesthetics. My people are beautiful. If we mix with others, we'll become less so, and our distinct beauty will pass from the Earth. For no good reason.

    Oh, and never, EVER forget the compassionate altruism that Nordish peoples carry deep within their DNA -- compassion they have continuiosly have shown to foreign and alien races (to the Nordish peoples own detriment, no less) that rarely, if ever, is truly reciprocated by other races and ethnys.

    Northern European kindness and decency will be used, 'jui-jitsu' style, as the ultimate weapon in their ongoing dispossession.

    I am immensely proud to be a fully-assimilated member of the American Majority, some of the finest and most decent People in the history of our world.

    ReplyDelete
  35. @svigor

    " Duh. Nobody gives a shit if the Snowy Egret is inferior to some other species or sub-species or race of bird. They just want to save it because it's worth saving. Meanwhile, the Snowy Egret doesn't just want to preserve his race, but see it flourish."

    See, here is the part that gets me the most. It also seems like n/a shares the same point of view.

    The snowy egret does not care to save his race because he has no concept of it. While his actions may result in the saving of his race he never had the "intention" of doing so. I think your making a major blunder when you ascribe human like qualities, such as intention of preserving his race, to the erget and his actions. It is something akin to saying a non polar molecule is hydrophobic, which is not accurate in the sense that water does not experience fear. But we use that term anyways becaus it helps us understand what will happen to the molecule.

    To often I notice people ascribing human like qualities when describing evolution. This is good for understanding some issues but it should not be taken as reality. Evoution just describes results, like non polar molecules moving away from water molecules or a egret incidentally saving its race because it wants to fuck. Evolution should not be used to give human like meaning to what it is describing.

    Evolution itself gives no meaning or purpose in any real sense to the behavior it describes. Evolution can describe bacteria, humans, and even planets but only one has a real sense of purpose.... And that purpose is not given by evolution.

    But you say preservation of the race as if evolution justifies it. Ironically you see the results of your actions (evolution) and you intend to keep doing the same actions (the instincts that evolution gave you) while giving it meaning. I say ironic because you actually recognize the results of your actions, so you are given the choice to preserve your race or not, and you not only choose to preserve your race but you also give it meaning. The only trouble is that you are assuming that which is, should be. And like I said before, evolution has no real meaning.

    The egret saves its race, but not because it should

    I'll have to finish the rest later.

    ReplyDelete
  36. It does not matter that evolution has no meaning because as the late evolutionary biologist George Williams stated,

    ”People can now espouse remote and inclusive ideals far removed
    from the selfishness that gave rise to the power to do so. It was inevitable that people in the novel civic environments of the last few millenia would develop aspirations for such things as the dictatorship of the proletariat, or the triumph of the master race, or the savings of souls. Because such strivings are beyond the direct action of natural selection, I have some hope that some such cause can provide the
    humane artifice that can save humanity from human nature”.

    Universal nationalism or the pursuit of ethnic genetic interests may be such an artifice.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Continuing on my previous post...

    Evolutionv is an interesting abstraction but it is no more special that all the other abstractions that describe phenomena. Because evolution has no meaning it should not serve as a person's ends. And neither should evolution be worshipped, something I've seen some people nearly do, as if it were a higher calling or a personal creator with a purpose/plan.

    Therefore evolution is not a justification to preserving ones race. The only reasons I would understand are personal ones or ones that appeal to a higher calling, that actually does have meaning.

    Having said that, I do understand the value of knowing evolution. Understanding evolution helps us to understand ourselves in terms of health, psychology, and our interactions with others and the environment. Then you can do what you want with that knowledge... But like I said, evolution is not a "reason" or justification for doing something.

    ReplyDelete
  38. " No justification is required for survival. Innumerable justifications can be had."

    So your saying you feel with sense of belonging with your race to the point you want to preserve it.

    I can understand that. That's the same thing I was saying when I said I want to preserve my heritage.

    Though I seem to be the only one fine with intermixing in America.

    ReplyDelete
  39. nuadha,

    "I can understand that. That's the same thing I was saying when I said I want to preserve my heritage.

    Though I seem to be the only one fine with intermixing in America."

    (1) My heritage is American. Americans of Northwestern European descent are the group with whom I most strongly identify. They also happen to be the core/founding ethny of America. They are a unique people in their own right. Why would I be okay with their being mixed out of existence?

    (2) As you pointed out earlier, the future of Europeans in Europe is anything but secure. If things continue as planned, they'll be replaced with non-European immigrants not long after Americans -- maybe earlier in some cases.

    (3) America is one of the largest reservoirs of Northwestern European-descended people in the world. Allowing it to turn into Brazil does not strike me as conducive to the long-term preservation of NW Europeans, to say the least.

    I'd recommend reading Frank Salter on Ethnic Genetic Interests and Richard McCulloch on racial preservation. I don't necessarily agree with each in every particular, but many of the overall points they make follow from basic population genetics and are rather difficult to argue with.

    ReplyDelete
  40. ^ ^ ^

    Fuck off, "Bertrand".

    N/A - why do you let these trolls post here?

    ReplyDelete
  41. ^ ^ ^

    Fuck off, "Bertrand".

    N/A - why do you let these trolls post here?

    ReplyDelete
  42. The one's containing irrelevant links are just comment spam.

    ReplyDelete