Twinning is rare among humans, but there is much variability among populations. Several studies show that certain demographic and socioeconomic factors, such as maternal age, mother’s educational level and income, influence twinning rate. There is no background of analytical studies of twins in Uruguay. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that has focused on describing and analyzing Uruguayan twinning rates over a period of 17 years (1999–2015). The birth data were collected from the website of Uruguay’s Ministry of Public Health. Economic data were obtained from Uruguay’s Instituto Nacional de Estadísti’s website for the period 2001–2013, since these variables are defined specifically for that period of time. The statistical software R (The R Project for Statistical Computing) was used. The twinning rate varied from 8.51 to 13 in the studied period. Montevideo has the highest median and the smallest variability in comparison with the other departments. In Uruguay (1999–2015), the highest twinning rate (28.94%) was observed in women aged 45 and older. The analysis also showed a relationship between twin birth rates and the mother’s educational level. In three regions of the country (West, Center and East), twin births show a random pattern but in the other two (North and Metropolitan), there is an increasing trend in the number of twins over time. In conclusion, this study recognizes social, economic and demographic factors that influence in the rate of twin births in Uruguay.

Where does Turkey’s performance in the health dimension of the Preston Curve stand with regard to comparable countries on the development ladder? When one observes the chronological progression of health and wealth values embedded in the Preston Curve for developing countries, one sees a near monotonic increase across the board, with only a very small number of downwardly mobile countries. In the face of this near-universal increase in health and wealth values, it is necessary to adopt a more comparative perspective in order to situate the Turkish state’s choices and performance within the general story playing out for developing countries in the second half of the 20th century. Utilizing just such a comparative framework, this article uses China’s experience between 1960 and 2010 as an alternative through which to understand Turkey’s development experience.