An Unbelievable Number of Twins Just Graduated From the Same Middle School

At Pollard Middle School in Needham, Massachusetts, each grade has anywhere from 450-500 students during any given year. According to Principal Tamatha Bibbo in this AP article, there are 5-10 sets of twins at the school each year. This year, however, brought an uncanny amount of twin sets. Let's dig in and take a closer look...

Twin births occur when one of two things happens: one fertilized egg splits into two embryos OR two eggs are fertilized by two sperm.

When one fertilized egg splits into two, it creates identical twins. When two different eggs are fertilized by two different sperm, fraternal twins are created. Identical twins are either both male or both female, and they are genetically identical. Fraternal twins can be both male, both female, or one of each, and they are genetically different.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, 1 in every 250 pregnancies results in twins. A woman is more likely to conceive twins if she is over the age of 35, has a family history of twin births, is receiving fertility treatment, has a body mass index higher than 30, or has a history of conceiving twins in an earlier pregnancy.

Needham, Massachusetts is located in the eastern portion of the state, about 20 miles southwest of Boston. Part of Norfolk County, Needham's population as determined in the 2020 census was 32,091.

As we stated earlier, each year at Needham's Pollard Middle School, Principal Tamatha Bibbo expects 5-10 sets of twins. But this year was completely unprecedented. This year, in the eighth-grade class alone, there were 23 sets of twins! It's estimated that that number of twins made up about 10% of the eighth-grade class. That's a LOT of twins! Check out the group pictures of the twins in this AP article here. Congrats to all the graduates!