Later Marriage Leads to More Twins Born

A record- number of twins were born in Korea last year as more older couples resorted to fertility treatment.

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According to Supreme Court data, 29,904 twins were born in 2015 accounting for 6.6 percent of all children born that year.

The number of twins has risen steadily over the last decade from 17,832 in 2005 to 28,056 in 2014.

The main reason is that more women have children later in life and seek out fertility treatment, which increases the chance of having twins.

According to Statistics Korea, the average age of women having their first babies was 32.23 last year, up 0.19 year from the previous year. Some 23.8 percent of all expecting mothers were 35 or older, up 2.2 percentage points.

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, 41 percent of 11,597 test-tube babies born in 2014 were twins. Test-tube procedures lead to higher chances of giving birth to twins, since up to five embryos are implanted in order to boost the chances.