Births of twins, triplets, or higher‑order multiples are already rare, and in Germany they have become even less common in recent years. In 2024, out of 680,017 newborns, 21,040 were multiples – meaning one in every 32 births was a multiple, a share of 3.1 %. The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) noted that this figure falls to its lowest level since 1997, after a decade of rise that began in 2017.
The increase over the past decade had largely been driven by advances in assisted reproduction, where multiple embryos were often transferred during in vitro fertilisation. Today, single‑embryo transfers are increasingly standard, leading to fewer multiple pregnancies. Of the 21,040 multiple births in 2024, 97.7 % were twins (20,550 twin babies) and 453 were triplets, with the remaining representing higher‑order multiples.
The likelihood of delivering multiples rises with maternal age. Over the last 25 years, the average age of mothers who had multiples has consistently been about one to one‑and‑a‑half years higher than that of mothers who had a single child. In 2024, the average age of mothers giving birth to multiples was 32.9 years, compared with 31.8 years for those delivering a single child.