Share of births that are twins by country

The number of twin deliveries per 100 deliveries.

Countries reporting

Highest

2.9%

Greece

Lowest

1.0%

Japan

Median

1.4%

Years covered

208

1815–2022

Data points

2,436

What the numbers show

Share of births that are twins is currently reported for 23 countries. The highest value is 2.9% in Greece; the lowest is 1.0% in Japan.

The median across all reporting countries is 1.4%, and the mean is 1.5%.

The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 3.

Over the past decade 8 countries rose and 15 fell. The largest increase was in South Korea (up 78.8%), and the largest decrease in Czechia (down 37.1%).

Share of births that are twins: full country ranking

#	Country	Latest	Year	10-year change	Trend
1	Greece	2.9%	2022	up 19.6%	rising
2	South Korea	2.4%	2020	up 78.8%	rising
3	Germany	1.8%	2020	up 3.5%	rising
4	Lithuania	1.7%	2020	up 38.3%	rising
5	Spain	1.6%	2021	down 21.1%	rising
6	United States	1.6%	2021	down 6.3%	rising
7	Switzerland	1.6%	2020	down 15.0%	rising
8	France	1.6%	2021	down 10.5%	rising
9	Canada	1.6%	2019	down 6.2%	rising
10	Netherlands	1.5%	2020	down 7.5%	rising
11	Austria	1.4%	2021	down 17.6%	rising
12	Australia	1.4%	2020	down 6.0%	rising
13	Denmark	1.4%	2022	down 35.5%	rising
14	Sweden	1.4%	2020	down 3.5%	falling
15	Czechia	1.3%	2020	down 37.1%	rising
16	Norway	1.3%	2020	down 17.9%	rising
17	New Zealand	1.3%	2021	down 8.9%	rising
18	Uruguay	1.3%	2020	up 8.7%	rising
19	Finland	1.3%	2019	down 10.9%	falling
20	Iceland	1.2%	2020	down 14.2%	falling
21	Italy	1.1%	1996	up 17.8%	falling
22	Chile	1.1%	2019	up 14.3%	rising
23	Japan	1.0%	2019	up 2.6%	rising

About this data

Indicator: Share of births that are twins
Unit: %
Source: Human Multiple Births Database (2024) – processed by Our World in Data
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage: 23 places, 2,436 data points, 1815–2022
Last refreshed: 07 August 2026

The number of twin deliveries per 100 deliveries.