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The twin rate could continue to go up as more nations push these factors higher.
The world is seeing double right now: Humans are having more twins at this moment in time than during any other point in recorded history, says a new study in the journal
Human Reproduction.
How come? Credit a combination of different changes to family demographics over time, as well as factors like higher rates of in vitro fertilization (IVF) and an increase in older first-time parents.
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In their study, the scientists, from Radboud University, University of Oxford, and the French Institute for Demographic Studies, found that one in 42 babies born today is a twin. That reflects an overall rate of 12 twin pregnancies out of 1,000, up from just nine in the 1980s. Twins are proportionately represented in the continents, so Asia and Africa, the two most populous continents, have 80 percent of total twin births around the world.