Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released new findings showing a dramatic decline in the number of triplets born in the United States in recent years.

The report said the decline began around 1998, but really accelerated around 2009. In 1998, mothers giving birth to three or more children at once accounted for 193.5 out of 100,000 total births. In 2023, this figure has fallen to 73.8 per 100,000 total births.

In 1998, births of triplets, quadruplets, and higher-order multiple births totaled 7,625 in the United States. In 2009, this number fell to 6,340. In 2023, only 2,505 births involved three or more babies.

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This trend was also observed among births of quadruplets and above. In 1998, there were 706 births involving four or more infants. In 2023, there were 148.

The data indicated that race was a major factor. The rate of white mothers giving birth to three additional children at a time decreased by 73% between 1998 and 2023. But for non-Hispanic black mothers, they were actually 25% more likely to give birth to three or more children.

Overall, the CDC says triplet births remain at higher rates than before when fertility treatments were popularized in the mid-1980s, which caused a huge increase in the number of mothers giving birth to several children at once. Changes to treatments, however, have led to a drop in numbers, the report notes.

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“This decline in births of triplets and higher over the past 25 years has been associated with changes in guidelines related to the number of embryos transferred when using assisted reproductive technologies,” the authors wrote. of the report.