Are you genetically-closer to your cousin(s) or your niece(s)/nephew(s)?

Depends, are we assuming you and your sibling have the same parents and that you parent and their sibling have the same parents?

Your niece, comes from your sister/brother. Your cousin came from your auntie/uncle. They are genetically closer evenly.

The genes you share with your cousin would be those of one set of your grandparents. But those would have been diluted in you by the genes from your other parent, and in your cousin by the genes from her other parent.

The genes you share with your niece are those of your parents. in your niece, these are diluted by the genes of her other parent, and are not at all diluted in you.

So you have a more recent and less diluted genetic connection with your niece.

Your own child’s cousin is your niece or nephew. Your child (having half of your genes and half of your spouse’s) is further away from his/her cousin than you are. Since you and your child are not genetically identical, the cousin relationship is therefore a genetically more distant relationship than the niece/nephew relationship.

You’re twice as close (in terms of “blood relation”) to your niece/nephew as you are to your cousin. You can confirm with Wolfram Alpha: cousin and nephew (Wolfram is such a beautiful thing).

GA, @Sarcasm. I had no idea Wolfram Alpha would do that.

lol @thorninmud Well said, same idea, no great answer :(

@dreamwolf, you don’t have any GAs, I think, because the way I read your answer, you’re claiming the niece and cousin are of equal genetic distance. That is an incorrect answer. I don’t know how else to interpret “They are genetically closer evenly”