Experts say better diagnostic testing is part of it. Share on Pinterest The prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the United States has jumped again — but the real story is behind the numbers. About 1 in 59 children in the United States have ASD, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It’s four times more likely to occur in boys than in girls. The data are drawn from a 2014 survey of 325,483 children in 11 different states, conducted by the CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network.

Behind the dramatic increase The results of the 2014 survey show a 16 percent increase in the total prevalence of ASD compared with the previous survey, which was conducted in 2012. During that time, the rate of autism prevalence was 1 in 68 children. This is a major jump in the rate from 2000, when it was just 1 in 150 children, according to the CDC . However, experts say that the increasing prevalence of ASD in the CDC’s latest report has more to do with better monitoring and diagnosis of the disorder, rather than a de facto rise in the number of children who have ASD. “We’re getting better at identifying under-unidentified populations, so it’s not as if the numbers are rising. It’s more that everyone is going to the number that it should be,” Dr. Max Wiznitzer, a pediatric neurologist at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, told Healthline. Historically, rates of ASD in the United States have been highest among white children compared with black or Hispanic children. In 2006, for example, the prevalence of ASD among white children was 30 percent higher than black children, and nearly 70 percent higher than Hispanic children. This didn’t make a lot of sense, said Wiznitzer. Doctors questioned why the disorder would so disproportionately affect one ethnic group of children. What they discovered was that ASD prevalence tends to be higher among residents of neighborhoods with higher socioeconomic status. These residents are more likely to have access to quality healthcare.