Sex & Race

Lucy and Maria Aylmer: How Many Twins Look Racially Different?

Twin sisters Lucy and Maria Aylmer (BoredPanda)

Twin sisters Lucy and Maria Aylmer (BoredPanda)

This week, the Internet has been fascinated by a set of English fraternal twins Lucy and Maria Aylmer. But there’s something special about them: Lucy has pale skin and red hair, while Maria has brown skin and brown curly hair.

In other words, one twin looks white, and the other twin looks black.

Their parents have a mixed racial background: their mother is half Jamaican, and their father is white.

Occasionally, stories like theirs pop up every now and again. In 2009, another British mixed-race couple produced not one, but two, sets of identical twins who each looked very racially different from their sibling.

But how common is this?

Unfortunately, there are no statistics that track this. From “The Associated Press:”

The phenomenon is so uncommon that there are no statistics to illustrate its probability, although it is thought likely to become more common because of the growing number of mixed-race couples.

To give you an idea on exactly how uncommon this is (using numbers!), Dr. Sarah Jarvis of Britain’s Royal College of General Pracitioners, said in 2009 (though it still applies today):

“Even non-identical twins aren’t that common. Non-identical twins from mixed parents, of different races, less common still. To have two eggs fertilized and come out different colors, less common still. So, to have it happen twice must be one in millions.”

But that’s just a guess, though the BBC reported chances closer to 1 in 500 in 2011. We won’t know until we actually start tracking the numbers.

Gallup’s 2013 Interracial Marriage Approval Rates

Gallup 2013 Interracial Marriage Results

Gallup 2013 Interracial Marriage Results

Within the past few years, there’s been a lot of talk about the changing face of America (as “National Geographic” called it last year), in terms of racial demographics. It’ll change a lot more in the coming generations. In 2013, Gallup conducted a poll to find how Americans felt about interracial marriage.

The 2013 Minority Rights and Relations poll found that 87% of American adults approve of interracial marriage, with 84% of whites and 96% of non-Hispanic blacks approving. (This latter distinction is important because Hispanics were counted 1968-2003.) The survey comprised 4K+ Americans, with 1K+ identifying as non-Hispanic blacks. Interracial marriage was defined as one between “whites and non-whites.”

Since the 2011 poll taken two years prior, whites’ approval crept up one percentage point to 84%, while non-Hispanic blacks’ approval held steady at 96%.

The study also examined how the approval broke down by age and geographic location. Unsurprisingly, the Millennials and Generation Z (18-29 age range) lead the charge, approving by 96%. The 30-49-year-olds approval rate tracks closely behind at 93%. For the older groups, there’s less approval (which makes sense as they reflect the times in which they grew up): Ages 50-64 approve at 84%, and ages 65+ approve at 70%.

In terms of geographic region, the West wins out with approval ratings of 93%. Next up, the East and Midwest tie with 86%. With the South, old habits die hard, and it brings up the rear with approval ratings of 83%.

I’m now interested to see how approval of other interracial relationships shake out, such Caucasian/Hispanic, Asian/Black, etc. I think Gallup needs to examine these next.

But it’s very interesting to see how things have changed over almost 60 years: When the study was first produced in 1958, only 4% of Americans approved of interracial marriage. Now, the percentage is heading that way for those who disapprove. The trends are positive for Team Love!