Sandeberg Rising

I always end up scrabbling around for actual numbers whenever talking about the National DNA Database so, in light of today’s news, I’m compiling a summary:

• Number of records: 4 million (Source; 05/09/07) or 3,785,571 at 31/03/06 (Source p29; 05/09/07)
• Percentage of population: 5-6%, higher than any other country (Derived from above; 05/09/07). The official figure is 5.2% (Source; 05/09/07)
• Percentage of US population on their DNA database: 0.5% (Source; 05/09/07)
• Age: 12 Years (Source; 05/09/07)
• Monthly growth: 30,000 (Source; 05/09/07)
• Number profiles of unconvicted 10-17 year olds: 24,000 (Source; 05/09/07)
• Official stance on children on the database: Under 18s make up 23% of all arrests, and so a comparative proportion of profiles is to be expected. There are no legal powers to take a DNA sample from anyone under ten without the consent of a parent or legal guardian. (Source; 05/09/07)
• Number of crimes solved per year using DNA database: 20,000 (Source; 05/09/07). The official figure is 45,000 crimes in 2005 & 2006 (Source; 05/09/07)
• DNA profiles deleted in 2005: 21,661 (Source; 20/06/07).
• DNA profiles deleted in 2006: 8,860 (Source; 20/06/07)
• Cost: £300 million over last five years (Source; 05/09/07)
• Gender split: 80.26% Men, 18.72% Women and 1.02% Unknown (Source p32; 05/09/07)
• Percentage of database by ethnicity (men): 76% White European, 9% Unknown (41% of which is collected in Scotland which does not track this data), 7% Afro-Caribbean, 5% Asian, 2% Dark-skinned European, 1% Arab (Source p34; 05/09/07)
• Percentage of population with a DNA record: 40% of Black population has DNA record, 13% of Asian population and 9% of White population, and (Source; 05/09/07)
• Number of replicated profiles: 646,890 or 16% (Source; 03/12/07)

I’m sure there’ll be more as I find them…

Updated 4/12/07: Replicated profiles