"Figure 5: The multiple maternity rate has decreased for women aged 45 years and over in recent years","" "Maternities with multiple births per 1,000 maternities, England and Wales, 1938 to 2018","" "","" "Notes","1. A maternity is a pregnancy resulting in the birth of one or more children including stillbirths. 2. The multiple maternity rate is expressed as the number of maternities with multiple births per 1,000 maternities. 3. Maternity figures for 1981 are not available due to a registrars’ strike. Due to the delay of live birth returns only a 10% sample was processed. 4. The multiple maternity rate for women aged 45 and over is not available for 1970 due to the small number of maternities for this age group in that year. We do not calculate rates based on such low numbers as they are considered unreliable." "Unit","Multiple maternities per 1,000 women (rate)" "","" "","All women","Women aged 45 and over" "1938","12.2","5.3" "1939","11.7","7.6" "1940","11.5","6.5" "1941","12.0","4.7" "1942","12.0","6.8" "1943","11.8","6.9" "1944","12.6","9.4" "1945","12.0","8.2" "1946","13.0","9.6" "1947","12.6","8.0" "1948","12.4","2.7" "1949","12.6","6.1" "1950","12.8","6.0" "1951","13.2","7.6" "1952","12.6","7.0" "1953","12.7","5.7" "1954","12.8","7.9" "1955","12.6","6.9" "1956","12.3","6.4" "1957","12.8","7.6" "1958","12.5","9.9" "1959","11.9","10.7" "1960","11.6","3.4" "1961","11.8","8.2" "1962","11.7","5.8" "1963","11.7","7.2" "1964","11.6","7.8" "1965","11.3","7.7" "1966","11.1","5.7" "1967","11.0","6.8" "1968","10.7","6.7" "1969","10.4","4.7" "1970","10.4",":" "1971","10.2","8.3" "1972","10.2","12.6" "1973","9.9","7.7" "1974","9.7","7.1" "1975","9.9","10.1" "1976","9.6","9.8" "1977","9.7","6.5" "1978","10.0","15.2" "1979","9.7","13.0" "1980","9.8","6.3" "1981 3","","" "1982","10.1","10.9" "1983","10.2","6.0" "1984","10.1","7.1" "1985","10.4","18.9" "1986","10.8","7.5" "1987","10.8","11.3" "1988","11.1","7.8" "1989","11.4","6.1" "1990","11.6","9.9" "1991","12.1","21.5" "1992","12.5","10.0" "1993","12.8","22.3" "1994","13.2","20.7" "1995","14.1","36.5" "1996","13.8","36.9" "1997","14.5","40.6" "1998","14.4","56.7" "1999","14.5","47.4" "2000","14.7","38.8" "2001","14.8","53.1" "2002","15.0","55.3" "2003","14.8","75.7" "2004","15.0","58.5" "2005","14.9","56.5" "2006","15.3","74.2" "2007","15.3","80.4" "2008","15.5","93.1" "2009","16.4","105.8" "2010","15.7","93.6" "2011","16.1","99.3" "2012","15.9","115.5" "2013","15.6","95.0" "2014","16.0","105.5" "2015","16.1","102.4" "2016","15.9","87.2" "2017","15.8","77.6" "2018","15.4","79.3"