This Chinese Town Has 39 Identical Twins and No One Knows Why

July 12, 2016

One village in China might give some visitors the impression that they’re seeing double. There should be nothing to worry about though, as, the town has just got too many twins.

Situated outside of Chongqing, the small town of Qingyan village has at least 39 pairs of twins, reported NetEase (via Shanghaiist). The town, which is now popularly known as “twin village,” has its oldest living set of twins at 89 years old.

With just 367 households living in the locale, meant at least one in every ten houses has a pair of twins. The insane statistic has always baffled its citizens and no one has yet explained the phenomenon.

According to a study published in PLOS ONE, which analyzed twin frequency rates in 75 countries from 1987 to 2010, there are multiple factors that may contribute to twinning. The mother’s age, height, previous pregnancies, oral contraceptive use, and heredity reportedly affects twinning rates in communities.

Statistically, about 1 in 90 human births (1.1%) results from a twin pregnancy worldwide. Like Qingyan, other communities with significant number of twins include the ethnic group of Igbo-Ora in Nigeria, with about 45 twins per 1000 births (4.5%), Kodinji, located in Kerala, India with 110 twins per 1000 births (11%), and Mohammadpur Umri, located in Uttar Pradesh, India with 54 twins in its 300 households (18%) .

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