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The twin birth rate in United States achieved a record high in 2014, according to an annual report published by CDC on Wednesday. A total of 33.9 twins were born for every 1,000 newborns in 2014. Since 1980, the twin birth rate has been climbing at a steady pace, especially amongst white, black and Hispanic women. However, between 2013 and 2014, there was an increase in twin birth reported only for the black women that went up by 4%. The rates remained unchanged amongst the white and the Hispanic women.

Not only were the twin birth rate was high, there was a trend reported in the higher number of triplets and other multiples too between 1980 and 1998. At a time, the rate reached at its peak of 193.5 multiples for every 1,000 new births. However, for the other multiples, the rate has been declining for the last two decades, unlike the twins that has witnessed an upward trend. There was a 5% drop noticed between 2013 and 2014 when the number of births reported were 113.5 per 1,000 births, as reported by CNN.

The increase in the birth of twins and other multiples has been attributed to the supported reproductive technology such as in vitro fertilization, the most common form of fertility treatment used by women these days. This technology has been used since 1981 and has been increasing as a preferred choice of technology ever since in the United States. However, the report authors suggested that the same technology, that increased the number of twin births, may also be responsible for the decline in the number of triplets or higher multiples, as reported by Yahoo News.