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According to a widely publicised study ( December 2008 ) published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, 19. 8 percent of modern Spaniards ( and Portuguese ) have DNA reflecting Sephardic Jewish ancestry ( compared to 10. 6 percent having DNA reflecting Moorish ancestors ).

The Sephardic result is in contradiction or not replicated in all the body of genetic studies done in Iberia and has been relativized by the authors themselves and questioned by Stephen Oppenheimer, who estimates that much earlier migrations, 5, 000 to 10, 000 years ago from the Eastern Mediterranean, might also have accounted for the Sephardic estimates.

" They are really assuming that they are looking at this migration of Jewish immigrants, but the same lineages could have been introduced in the Neolithic ".

The same authors in also a recent study ( October 2008 ) attributed most of those same lineages in Iberia and the Balearic Islands as of Phoenician origin.

The rest of genetic studies done in Spain estimate the Moorish contribution ranging from 2. 5 / 3. 4 % to 7. 7 %.