The Center for Economic Policy Research has done a very neat analysis of where our ancestors were living in A.D. 1500. For example:

  • About 4.4 percent of the current US population’s ancestors lived in France in 1500,
  • About 8.5 percent lived in Ireland,
  • About 1.1 percent in Senegal, and
  • About 0.9 percent in China.

Their conclusion: “44 percent of the variance in the natural logarithm of year 2000 per capita GDP is accounted for by entering only the share of the population’s ancestors that lived in Europe in 1500.”

[That’s courtesy of Razib at Gene Expression.]