The ancestral node of Q and R
Haplogroup P, defined by P295, is the immediate ancestor of two of the most important lineages in the world: Q, which peopled much of the Americas, and R, which dominates Europe and is common across western Eurasia and South Asia. Men assigned directly to P, rather than to Q or R, are rare and are found mainly in Southeast Asia and Oceania.
P's descendants — Q and R — are found across almost the whole of Eurasia and the Americas. Direct P assignments are uncommon and occur mainly among some populations of Southeast Asia and the western Pacific, the region generally associated with the deep origins of the lineage before its two great descendant branches expanded elsewhere.
Haplogroup P is thought to have arisen in Asia, with its deeper roots often placed in the Southeast Asian region, before the divergence of Q and R and their subsequent expansions into northern Eurasia, the Americas and Europe. Its age is estimated in the tens of thousands of years.
P's two great descendant branches are Q and R. Between them these account for an enormous share of paternal lineages across Eurasia and the Americas, so P is best understood as the shared ancestor of two of the most consequential lineages in human history rather than as a common personal assignment.
A plain P result usually means testing has not resolved whether you belong to Q or R. Further SNP testing will normally place you in one of those, and given how different their histories and distributions are, that resolution is essential before the result means anything geographically.
Live counts by country are shown on this page once the map data loads.