Are the English actually Anglo-Saxon?! #anthropology #anglosaxons #celts #genetics #ancienthistory

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]Are the English actually Anglo-Saxon?

[00:00:02]Before the Anglo-Saxon influence, England was inhabited by Romanized Britons. This changed in the 5th century AD when a British warlord named Vortigern invited Germanic tribes such as the Angles, Saxons, and the often forgotten Jutes to Britain in order to fight against the fierce Picts in the north. There was a common misconception that the native Britons were completely replaced by the Anglo-Saxons, but modern genetic studies tell a different story.

[00:00:26]According to researchers at the University of Oxford, Anglo-Saxon ancestry makes up an estimated 10 to 40% of the average English person's DNA.

[00:00:35]This will vary by region as some from Southeast England may exceed 40%, but this makes you wonder, where does the rest of their DNA come from?

[00:00:44]Using the Echo DNA admixture calculator, we predicted that the average English person had 53% of their DNA derived from the Insular Celts, with 27% coming from the Anglo-Saxons and other Western Germanic groups.

[00:00:58]An often underrepresented component of British ancestry is the Continental Celt. They make up around 18% of their ancestry with the often overrepresented Norse making up the remaining 2%.

[00:01:09]Although the Celts still make up the core of English genetics, there is still undoubtedly substantial Anglo-Saxon influence, and when you combine this with the cultural and linguistic influence, yes, England is still Anglo-Saxon.