# Population Genetics > Autosomal Genetics >  Percentage of genetic similarity between humans and animals

## Maciamo

It is very difficult to find reliable data comparing the human genome to animal genome. The principal reason is that few animals have had their full genome sequenced. Even those that have cannot be easily compared in terms of percentages because the genomic length and chromosomal division can vary greatly from one species to another.

Scouring the Web, here is what I have found so far.

- Genome-wide variation from one *human being* to another can be up to 0.5% (99.5% similarity)

- *Chimpanzees* are 96% to 98% similar to humans, depending on how it is calculated. (source)

- *Cats* have 90% of homologous genes with humans, 82% with dogs, 80% with cows, 79% with chimpanzees, 69% with rats and 67% with mice. (source)

- *Cows* (_Bos taurus_) are 80% genetically similar to humans (source)

- 75% of *mouse* genes have equivalents in humans (source), 90% of the mouse genome could be lined up with a region on the human genome (source) 99% of mouse genes turn out to have analogues in humans (source)

- The *fruit fly* (_Drosophila_) shares about 60% of its DNA with humans (source).

- About 60% of *chicken* genes correspond to a similar human gene. (source)


The number of genes across a few tested species can be compared on HomoloGene.

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## bamcy

Hi, great post unfortunately the "source linke" for Chimpanzees seems deleted or is it a mistake from your part?

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## MOESAN

these comparisons are very uncertain helas! every specie has its proper number of genes - 
What I notice is that (according to these not too much reliable %s), human specie lies at the "center" of other species..., if by example I rely on the %s of human, cat, dog, mouse; funny play!

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## Joey D

Every time I mercilessly swat a fruit fly, I am killing something which is over half human.

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## Alan

Percentages are relative. Relative in comparison to group x. For example all modern Humans are like 95% almost identical, relativly to their other close cousins within the Homo group.

if we use only modern Humans for comparison with an interval of West Eurasians on one end and East Eurasians on the other, than French and Chinese are like 95% different while French and Iraqis are like ~96% almost identical. 

However if we use an interval of only Europe to West Asia than French and Iraqis would be 65-70% very similar but "only" ~50% almost identical, while French and Germans would be around 92% almost identical.

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## LeBrok

It depends if we compare function of genes (general view) or identical alleles (detailed comparison).

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## Gorehound

Interesting.

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## Minty

> Percentages are relative. Relative in comparison to group x. For example all modern Humans are like 95% almost identical, relativly to their other close cousins within the Homo group.
> if we use only modern Humans for comparison with an interval of West Eurasians on one end and East Eurasians on the other, than French and Chinese are like 95% different while French and Iraqis are like ~96% almost identical. 
> However if we use an interval of only Europe to West Asia than French and Iraqis would be 65-70% very similar but "only" ~50% almost identical, while French and Germans would be around 92% almost identical.


This is why no matter how long an Asian person lived in western country, you will be forever asked the question where are you really from? This is even happening to people who are fourth generation Asians in Australia for example. Sigh, one has to compromise in this world (人在江湖，身不由己 ).

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## markleslienicknak

> This is why no matter how long an Asian person lived in western country, you will be forever asked the question where are you really from? This is even happening to people who are fourth generation Asians in Australia for example. Sigh, one has to compromise in this world (人在江湖，身不由己 ).





> Percentages are relative. Relative in comparison to group x. For example all modern Humans are like 95% almost identical, relativly to their other close cousins within the Homo group.
> 
> if we use only modern Humans for comparison with an interval of West Eurasians on one end and East Eurasians on the other, than French and Chinese are like 95% different while French and Iraqis are like ~96% almost identical. 
> 
> However if we use an interval of only Europe to West Asia than French and Iraqis would be 65-70% very similar but "only" ~50% almost identical, while French and Germans would be around 92% almost identical.



Taken from WIKI, there are 3,200,000,000 base pairs in the human genome. Scientists in 2015 reported finding 88 million variants of which 64 million variants have an extremely low frequency. What most recent studies have found is that the average human varies from another by 16,000,000 to 32,000,000 base pairs. This means that most humans would be 99.0-99.5% similar empirically. A study posted in Nature which I cannot link (too new) says that most variation is in the 4,000,000 to 5,000,000 site range, thus making most people 99.875% similar. To determine ancestry or ethnicity, we may use these variations. I'd assume only variations with the highest frequency would be helpful. Even 1/10th of these sites would be useful for this purpose. Therefore, I suppose it is possible to be 65% similar thus 35% different in the remaining 0.125-1.0%. Is this the relativity mentioned by the OP? 

As for your post, Minty, it is more a matter of us having a historical reference on the peopling of a region and modern insight on what phenotype is represented most often within a country. As long as we can see and have a historical reference, people will remain curious and hopefully it is mostly benign curiosity. It's just a shame because I've seen great delight on the faces of non-Caucasian Americans upon returning to the U.S. and being told "welcome back" or "welcome home", but I doubt it will ever change in most places in the world save some catastrophic event leading to migration or a few more hundred years of continued cross-border mobility and immigration.

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## Wheal

This discussion reminds me of the old sci-fi movie The Fly... 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xjuocw-_NlY

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## DarknessC

Interesting

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## Mmiikkii

Well. There are really 20.000 genes.
Of which like 29% are the same with chimpanzees.

We share like 99% DNA, but only 29% of the genes are the same. Seem there's changes here and there all over the genome.

Slight changes, but like in 30 million bp. Spread all across of the total 3.2 billion bp.

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## Salento

… chimpanzees, gorillas, … carry 24 pairs of chromosomes vs the 23 pairs in Humans.

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