Over the course of the 1000 Genomes Project there have been substantial advances in sequence data generation, archiving and analysis. Primary sequence data production improved with increased read length and depth, reduced per-base errors, and the introduction of paired-end sequencing. Sequence analysis methods improved with the development of strategies for identifying and filtering poor-quality data, for more accurate mapping of sequence reads (particularly in repetitive regions), for exchanging data between analysis tools and enabling ensemble analyses, and for capturing more diverse types of variants. Importantly, each release has examined larger numbers of individuals, aiding population-based analyses that identify and leverage shared haplotypes during genotyping. Whereas our first analyses produced high-confidence short-variant calls for 80–85% of the reference genome1, our newest analyses reach ∼96% of the genome using the same metrics, although our ability to accurately capture structural variation remains more limited33. In addition, the evolution of sequencing, analysis and filtering strategies means that our results are not a simple superset of previous analysis. Although the number of characterized variants has more than doubled relative to phase 1, ∼2.3 million previously
