How To Calculate Heritability

Heritability is a measure of the proportion of phenotypic variance in a population that is attributed to genetic variation between individuals. Understanding how to calculate heritability is crucial in genetics, breeding, and evolutionary biology…

1. Enter the phenotypic, genotypic, and environmental variances in the respective input fields.
2. Click the “Calculate Heritability” button.
3. View the calculated heritability value and chart below the calculator.

The formula to calculate heritability (h²) is:

h² = V_G / (V_P – V_E)

Learn more about heritability from this PubMed article.

Visit the USDA’s Genetics and Biotechnology Laboratory for more resources.