Most of us can count our cousins on our fingers.
But if you take a wider look at your family tree, you might find a few thousand more.
The average Briton has 17,000 living blood relatives, DNA researchers have claimed – most of them second, third or even up to eighth cousins.
The majority of them are thought to live across the globe, while only 1,200 are in the UK. It means that a typical Wembley Stadium crowd would include three cousins, analysis from AncestryDNA found.
A study of the company’s database of seven million people showed that we have 16,895 living relatives on average.
The average Briton has 17,000 living blood relatives, DNA researchers have claimed – most of them second, third or even up to eighth cousins
But the Scottish typically have even more, with 21,000 cousins, while those in the North West have 20,000 cousins. Across southern England, 16,000 is more likely.
The research was conducted in honour of DNA Day, which marks the 1953 discovery of the double helix – the genetic code system that makes it possible to trace family.
Russell James of AncestryDNA said: ‘Even in the fast-moving modern world, family remains a priority in life for most and while we would not necessarily expect British people to contact all 16,000 of their cousins, it might be that striking up a relationship with even a few could end up being a life-changing experience.’
We have six first cousins on average, a poll by Opinium found.
Most people said they only considered first cousins to be real relatives, but not second, third or so on.
Just over half said they were not close to any of their cousins.