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Supertwins Statistics
General Facts about Multiple Births
According the the Centers for Disease Control's National Vital Statistics Report Births: Final Data for 2005:
- 32.2 twin births occur per every 1,000 total live births
- 1.618 triplet or higher order birth occur per every 1,000 total live births
In 2005, 139,816 live multiple birth babies were born in the United States:
- 133,122 Twins
- 6,208 Triplets
- 418 Quadruplets
- 68 Quintuplets and Above
Due to medical advances in fertility therapy, the chance of having a multiple birth has increased in the past two decades; however that trend is slowly reversing for triplet+ births. The rate of triplet births peaked in 1999, and has slowly been declining since. (Note: The chance of having a triplet birth rose from 37 per 100,000 live births in 1980 to 193.5 per 100,000 live births in 1998.)
See our Supertwins 101 FAQs: Expecting Multiples for more interesting information!
Source: Martin, J.A, Hamilton, Ph.D., B.E., Sutton, Ph.D., P.D, Ventura, M.A., S.J., Menacker, Dr. P.H., F., Kirmeyer, PhD., S. & Munson, M.L. (2007, December 5 ). Centers for Disease Controls' National Vital Statistics Report: Births Final Data for 2005, 56(6). Retrieved March 7, 2008 from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr56/nvsr56_06.pdf
So what are the odds of spontaneous or identical multiples?
According to mathematical probabilities, the estimated odds
in the United States
of having spontaneous multiples (of any zygosity) are as follows:
| Twins |
1 in 83 pregnancies |
| Triplets |
1 in 6,889 pregnancies |
| Quadruplets |
1 in 571,787 pregnancies |
| Quintuplets |
1 in 47,458,321 pregnancies |
| Sextuplets |
1 in 3,939,040,643 pregnancies |
The odds of having monozygotic (all identical) multiples are as follows:
Twins |
1 in 250 pregnancies |
Triplets |
1 in 62,500 pregnancies |
Quadruplets |
1 in 15,625,000 pregnancies |
Quintuplets |
1 in 3,906,250,000 pregnancies |
For more information about monozygotic multiples, see the following MOST Supertwins 101: FAQs:
17. What is the difference between identical or fraternal multiples?
18. Do identical multiples present additional risks during pregnancy?
19. How can I tell if my multiples are identical or fraternal?
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