Population Growth! Kind of...

I’ve recently become intrigued by a TV program on the TLC network entitled “Jon and Kate Plus 8.” Let me be perfectly clear, I generally despise TLC’s programming, as really, it is “too much information” and “too many haunting visuals.” Never the less, I discovered this show about, you guessed it, Jon and Kate. Jon and Kate have 8 children. If that isn’t enough to scare you, it gets better. 2 of the children are twins and the other 6 all came at once. That’s right, sextuplets. Aside from having a potential break down from simply watching the show, I became intrigued about the chances of “conceiving” that many children in “one sitting.”

After a bit of research, I have come up with some figures. Let it be noted that I did not do this research for the hell of it. This is actually rather pertinent information to be aware of, or at least in my case for the potential future. I’m going to be blunt, I am going to take a genetic history of every woman I date from this point forth. Any sort of history of “multiples” will in turn lead to me beating a hasty retreat to the nearest state line on foot. And you think I am joking…

Anyways, it is time to make my way to the figures. It should be noted that these figures are for natural incidences of “multiples,” not incidences that involve fertility treatment. As is obvious, fertility treatments greatly increase the incidences of “multiples.” The chance of having fraternal twins (not genetically identical) is 1 in 80; identical twins are 1 in 255. Triplets on the other hand are far rarer, as that chance is 1 in 8100. Quadruplets (4) are even rarer, as the chances are 1 in 729,000. Quintuplets (5) occur in 1 out of 55 million pregnancies. Finally, the chance of conceiving sextuplets is 1 in 4.7 billion. Needless to say, the “upper range” of those figures appears to be quite rare.