Kids are coming two at a time more and more often. The rate of twin births in the United States hit a new high in 2013, according to a report from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There were 33.7 twin births in every 1,000 deliveries in 2012. This rate was an increase of 2% over 2012, which is a very large increase for a single year, especially since the rate had been stable from 2009 to 2012.
The rise in the number of twin births over the past 30 years is primarily due to more women using fertility treatments. One in every 30 babies born in the United States from 2009 to 2013 was a twin, but only 1 in 53 babies born in 1980 was a twin.
However, a 2014 report from the NCHS said that births of triplets and higher numbers of multiples have been going down sharply, based on 2012 data. This may be due to better control of fertility treatments, allowing one embryo to develop rather than several at a time.
The rate of cesarean deliveries has declined to 32.7% of all births in the country. From 1996 to 2009, the rate of cesarean births rose nearly 60%, but has been coming down since 2009.
Overall, however, the number and rate of all births declined in the United States in 2013. This is a decline of a bit less than 1%. It is the sixth straight year that there has been a decline in births. There were 3.93 million births in 2013.
The number of babies born to teen mothers has gone down by 10% to 26.5 per 1,000. The rate for births among women under age 30 has reached record lows, but rates rose for women over age 30.
You can see the whole report on births in the United States in 2013 at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db175.htm. This report presents the final birth data for that year.
