Twin Fun Facts

My twins are currently participating into a study being conducted by Florida State University called the "Florida Twin Project on Reading." The goal of the project is to understand the underlying causes of individual differences in reading-related skills. The project compares data collected from sets of identical and fraternal twins. My girls are not aware that they are participating in the project. They simply take the same standardized tests that all Florida public school students take. The Florida State University researches then take their test scores and compare them to those of other fraternal and identical twins.

From time to time we receive a newsletter about the progress of the study. This months newsletter contained a few Twin Fun Facts that I found interesting, and I thought I would pass them on.

1. There are over 125 million twins in the world.

2. The birth rate of twins is about 32 per 1,000 births.

3. Between 1996 and 2006, the percentage of multiple births in Florida grew by more than 19%.

4. About 1/3 of all twins are identical and 2/3 are fraternal. My twins are fraternal, but are often mistaken for identical.

5. Over 20% of twins are left handed, but only 10% of the general population are lefties. My twins are both righties.