Abstract: The present invention provides a method and system for the prediction of the merit of at least one individual in a population, the method comprising the steps of: (a) in the population, where information of individuals are known, using dimension reduction on the information to project the information to a low dimensional space whilst retaining the complexity of the information to generate a set of explanatory variables; (b) utilising the explanatory variables to generate a predictor function with respect to merit; and (c) utilising the predictor function to predict the merit of the individual.